PDT 2/2 : Why has tipping increased?

[Tony_P]

my g/f claims that in the parts of the midwest she's lived (Wis. & Indiana) 10% is pretty common. I suspect she's just cheap. Can anyone from a flyover state confirm this?

[SoloAJ]

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my g/f claims that in the parts of the midwest she's lived (Wis. & Indiana) 10% is pretty common. I suspect she's just cheap. Can anyone from a flyover state confirm this?

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I'm from Illinois (non-Chicago area) and I personally tip based off 20%. Sometimes more sometimes less. I don't know anyone who tips based off 10% in non-Chicago IL, which should be comparable to Indiana and Wisconsin.

I don't know why I tip as high as I do. It isn't about "being a baller" or anything, because I certainly am not that.

I think that it is like Ray Zee said. I just have less of a value for money. It's not detrimental for me. I don't have credit card debt or anything like that (just college loans). The other reason, I assume, is that there is some intrinsic motivation within me and I enjoy helping others, also as Ray stated.

[SoloAJ]

El D,

I feel it may contribute somehow to this thread by saying that I am 22 and have always considered "standard tip" to be 15-18%. This is what I was always brought up on.

That said, I tip 20% or so almost every time I eat.

[fnord_too]

I think the bulk of the reason is sociological. If I had to guess, I would say that the incremental moves are because (as has been suggested) people want to feel 'better' than the norm. If the norm is 15%, then 20% is 'better'. Also, I am sure this is pushed by the perception of what more rich and/or famous people do. I don't think this really goes on at a conscious level though. This seems similar to words and names coming in to and out of fashion with the masses to me. We are, as individuals and cultures, striving by large to be better than the norm, however we perceive better than the norm as being.

[bobman0330]

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I think the bulk of the reason is sociological. If I had to guess, I would say that the incremental moves are because (as has been suggested) people want to feel 'better' than the norm. If the norm is 15%, then 20% is 'better'. Also, I am sure this is pushed by the perception of what more rich and/or famous people do. I don't think this really goes on at a conscious level though. This seems similar to words and names coming in to and out of fashion with the masses to me. We are, as individuals and cultures, striving by large to be better than the norm, however we perceive better than the norm as being.

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This is the answer. People who leave less than the average tip are stiffs that no one likes. People who leave more than the average tip are generous people who feel for the common man. It's also in the nature of restaurant meals that they are often situations where people want to show how great they are (dates, business lunches, even meals with friends. eating by yourself where there's no one whose opinion you care about to witness the tip is a rarity). So everyone wants to be above average, which is obviously mathematically impossible. When the perceived average was 15%, the real average was probably 20%. Now that the perceived average has caught up to the old reality of 20%, the real average is even higher.

Some people think that a similar effect plays a role in CEO pay, of all things. No board goes around looking for a bargain CEO who will work for less than average. They want a great CEO and they tell their comp consultants to pay him an above-average salary. And the same cycle goes on.

[PITTM]

Very good post imo. Totally agree.

[MicroBob]

Not really sure WHY exactly but I do have some observations.


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It's also in the nature of restaurant meals that they are often situations where people want to show how great they are (dates, business lunches, even meals with friends. eating by yourself where there's no one whose opinion you care about to witness the tip is a rarity).

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Is that really that much of a factor?
Most dine-out situations I've ever been involved in I very rarely have any idea how much the other person tips and they don't have any idea how much I tipped either.
This is true whether we are splitting the check or whether one or the other is paying for the whole thing.

People just don't share this type of info that often. And if you're on a date it's not like the girl is going to be eyeballing the check and receipt to see how much you tip. I mean, it could happen that they look at the number of bills left on the table and make an evaluation. But more often than not one party pays and the other is not going to know how much the tip was.


The societal norms have definitely changed. People of all generations believe that 20% is far more acceptable now whereas previously that would be considered a very generous tip.
I think somehow the service industry has pushed it that way just with talk/peer-pressure or something like that which ends up getting spread around.

I know that my 63-year-old Mom tips 20% because when we dine-out she has me double-check to make sure she is tipping enough because she ain't too hot at math. And she doesn't care at all really about giving to the needy or getting better service when she returns there because she doesn't frequent that many places often enough to become known. But she does know that 20% is considered appropriate now. Where she heard this I'm not sure.

My Dad is kind of slow to catch up to what is happening in the world around him sometimes and I believe he tips in the 12-15% range although I'm not positive. If so then he is completely oblivious to how horrible a tipper he is compared with most people.
But I think that's very much the case for a lot of the senior population in Florida. And for many it doesn't have a whole lot to do with being stingy because they can't afford to tip more or anything like that. It can be at a nice and expensive restaurant but they just haven't gotten the word that 12% is considered extremely low.

I'm pretty sure if you asked people in the service industry in Florida they would tell you that the more affluent seniors can be some of the worst tippers around even if they believe they got great service. Not true all the time of course. But some of them just seem to not have received the memo that 12% is kind of insult now and that 20% is more the norm.

[El Diablo]

Tony,

10% is def on the cheap side anywhere, but my experience in the midwest and south is that tipping is still closer to 15% than 20% there for most, while in more urban/cosmopolitan/whatever cities like SF/NYC/LA/Boston it's closer to 20% for quite a few more people.

Autograt of 18% in Texas or Atlanta would be received pretty poorly, I'd guess (I haven't done group dinners there for a long time, though, might be wrong), but it's pretty common now for groups in SF/NYC.

[NhlNut]

Have we become more of a service economy?
It would make sense then, that more people have worked service jobs, and thus know what it's like to depend on tips for their income.

[ahnuld]

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Have we become more of a service economy?
It would make sense then, that more people have worked service jobs, and thus know what it's like to depend on tips for their income.

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I stated this as well but I dont think its getting enough attention as a factor in this thread