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?

[+EV]

[ QUOTE ]
Tipping in Ireland has, as far as I can tell, gone way up over the last 10-20 years. Not to US levels, but to more than almost anywhere else in the world. I think this is because the country has become more Americanized, and much more prosperous with an economic boom beginning in the early 90s and still felt today.

I doubt this helps explain an increase in tipping in the US, but I thought another data point would be useful.

[/ QUOTE ]

Tipping in Ireland is partly my fault. I was over there and just couldnt help but to tip people. In the tour book it said that it was pretty much not even acceptable except at resturants, but I was just tipping all the people that I would normally tip in the US. Plus tipping with Euro's is fun cause you can just flip them a few 1-2Euro coins!!!

+EV

[Dids]

I tip 20%

1- because there's something that makes me feel good about knowing I'm tipping slightly more than normal. I try to be a very appreciative customer. It's not just tipping, but also lots of thank yous and whatever else. This is mostly because of my brief experience working in the service industry.

2- it's mathematically easier to figure out a 20% tip.

I'm not sure if you can generalize either of these to everybody else though.

[Tony_P]

"2- it's mathematically easier to figure out a 20% tip."

20% - Figure out 10%, double it
15% - Figure out 10%, add half

I fail to see how it's much easier

[dylan's alias]

I think Dids (and some others) have unintentionally hit on the real reason that tips are increasing.

While the relative wealth of the country has increased, the average person's perception of their own wealth has disproportionately increased. That is, people have a very inflated sense of their own worth. Savings are miniscule and debt (mortgages, credit cards) has skyrocketed. In addition, cash is less commonly used.

All of these factors combine to convince the tipper that:
1 - they have more wealth than they actually do
2 - there is a never ending money stream (borrowing) that is without cost or risk
3 - like casino chips, it is much easier to write down a bigger number on a credit card receipt than it is to count out the cash


There are some, like Dids, who tip big because it makes them feel good to help out the worker. I think more people tip big because it makes them feel like a big shot and the ramifications are hidden.

I'll paraphrase Woody Allen, from an old stand-up routine:

"I got a role playing god. I was a method actor, so I started tipping big, because I knew he would."

[Manque]

[ QUOTE ]
I think Dids (and some others) have unintentionally hit on the real reason that tips are increasing.

While the relative wealth of the country has increased, the average person's perception of their own wealth has disproportionately increased. That is, people have a very inflated sense of their own worth. Savings are miniscule and debt (mortgages, credit cards) has skyrocketed. In addition, cash is less commonly used.

All of these factors combine to convince the tipper that:
1 - they have more wealth than they actually do
2 - there is a never ending money stream (borrowing) that is without cost or risk
3 - like casino chips, it is much easier to write down a bigger number on a credit card receipt than it is to count out the cash


There are some, like Dids, who tip big because it makes them feel good to help out the worker. I think more people tip big because it makes them feel like a big shot and the ramifications are hidden.

I'll paraphrase Woody Allen, from an old stand-up routine:

"I got a role playing god. I was a method actor, so I started tipping big, because I knew he would."

[/ QUOTE ]

I can't imagine anyone tipping 18-20% rather than 15% because it makes them feel like a big shot.

[Dids]

It's not about how much more you tip, it's just that it's "more" at all.

[ChicagoTroy]

[ QUOTE ]
20% - Figure out 10%, double it
15% - Figure out 10%, add half

I fail to see how it's much easier

[/ QUOTE ]
x + 2(.1x)
x + .1x + (.1x)/2

[PITTM]

I usually use 15 as a baseline and 20 if theyre good. As diablo said, I think having your percentage rise over time is kind of silly, especially since it seems like places raise their prices with a bit more frequency at this point than in the past.

[Pyromaniac]

[ QUOTE ]
"2- it's mathematically easier to figure out a 20% tip."

20% - Figure out 10%, double it
15% - Figure out 10%, add half

I fail to see how it's much easier

[/ QUOTE ]

isn't the comparison actually

20% - Figure out 10%, double it
15% - Figure out 10%, then figure out half of that, then add half to the 10% (and try not to forget both of those different numbers while you're adding them in your head) (while trying not to look like you're thinking too hard about what the tip should be)

Figuring 10% is easy for anyone, just move the decimal. 5% is hard. Not for you, maybe, but for the general population. $73.70 is $7.37 for 10%...quick, what's half of that? doubling is easier.

And I think there's a theme of looking for the easy solution here:

[ QUOTE ]
FWIW I always tip twice the tax dollar amount in restaurants, and in California that'd be ~16%

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Sales tax here is 15% so its pretty easy to just copy the taxes.

[/ QUOTE ]

And people used to carry those "tipping calculator cards" in their wallets.

hell, maybe they still do:

http://www.tipping.org/tipcards.html

...this tip card has a bit of, what, social engineering built into it, with columns for 15% and 20%. As if to say, here's the *minimum* you should give, and here's an alternate amount--if, say, the service was better than just the *minimum*...

none of that really answers the question of why-have-tips-gone-up, though. I think it's due to

1) mathematical simplicity. maybe that's find 10% and double it. maybe it's take 8% tax and double it. either way, it ends up somewhere in the above-15% range. and if you're aiming for a 15-20% tip, no one knows how to get to 17 or 18%...so it's easier to figure 20% and shave a bit off, than to figure 15% and add a bit on.

2) social engineering. there's a lot of rhetoric about 15% as the, you know, absolute minimum acceptable amount. really, the implication is that, if you "only" leave 15%, then either you're a cheapskate or the service must have been noticeablly awful in some way. (seems like these definitions used to be applicable to people leaving 10% or less) so there's been an inflation of the definitions of cheap/acceptable/good tipping.

2a. This may be a nit, but I'd always understood the traditional amount-to-tip-on as the meal itself, not the drinks & tax. But these days it seems like the amount at hand is the total bill (again, perhaps because it's easier to work with the final total than to try to figure it out w/o drinks/tax...also perhaps b/c that inflates the amount, as noted above in the autgrat of 18% becoming 19.5% when done after tax). that's possibly going to account for some difference, too.

2b. one last thought - perhaps younger generations are learning tipping habits/culture differently than older ones. again, no one's carrying tip cards around anymore.