So, what are we tipping these days?
June 3, 2021 4:05 PM   Subscribe

Early in the pandemic, the question of how to tip was relatively easy - we tipped more than usual. Now that the pandemic is not over but certainly better (at least in the US) it feels less clear what is expected.

I'm mostly interesting in what % people are tipping for sit-down restaurant meals, pickup carryout meals, and delivery – but feel free to share any other services you use.

If you currently work in the restaurant industry, I'd also be curious to know where the money for pickup carryout orders goes – early on in the pandemic, some places in my city made clear that carryout tips would start going directly to the staff. Now though, I can't think of any restaurant still claiming that - does this money just go to the owner?

If you feel comfortable, I'm also curious if there is a difference between people who live in large cities v. small cities v. towns, and if you imagine this to be how you'll tip in the future or not (and why). Finally, since tipping cultures vary widely across nationality, it would help to say which country you're in. Thanks!
posted by coffeecat to Work & Money (29 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I don't know about pickup/carryout. In person restaurant, I am generally tipping 25% as my baseline. Delivery, it depends on if there is a delivery charge and to whom that goes. I am generally in the round up to the nearest $5 increment guy so either minimum of $5 or $10 or $15 or $20 etc.
posted by AugustWest at 4:15 PM on June 3, 2021 [2 favorites]


My friends in food service have told me that their average tips are now lower than they were pre-pandemic and have been for months at this point. They posit that people became resentful about paying such high tips, and when they cut back they really cut back. My friends work all in a fairly affluent college town in a large city in the US; their establishments are not primarily populated by college students, but by working professionals in the area. I'm not sure how widespread this is, but that's been their experience.
posted by twelve cent archie at 4:33 PM on June 3, 2021 [1 favorite]


Pandemic times I was doing only pick up and was tipping 25-30%. This was much higher than I did for order out in the past--I didn't do it much and tended to feel if I wasn't getting service a few bucks in the tip jar were a courtesy. (It didn't even occur to me that if you don't have a server it goes to the owner by default.)

I've been in a few restaurants since vaccinated and have been tipping a bit higher than I did before, but not much. I start at 20% then walk up to a round number, add for good service, etc. Numbers in my area make me feel it's safe, and I wouldn't be eating out in the first place otherwise. Will be watching this thread to see if I should be feeling ashamed and cheap.
posted by mark k at 4:57 PM on June 3, 2021


I ate out for the first time since last March this past weekend and we tipped 50%. I don't think that's going to be the new forever-rule buuuuut that's a good way to go broke fast so I am probably not going to eat out again soon until I have a good answer to this question. Watching with great interest! Delivery/pickup was and still is 25%, although we don't order out much either. I'm guessing the new normal will be somewhere between those two numbers?
posted by bowtiesarecool at 5:20 PM on June 3, 2021


I'm still doing 25% and up for delivery, and generally doubling what I'm giving to baristas and bartenders. I've only eaten out once and I don't remember exactly what I put down but it was north of my pre-pandemic 20-25% for sure. I figure servers, baristas, delivery drivers, and bartenders are coming off a very lean and frightening year (although it must be admitted that WAY more people have been eating out and going to bars for WAY longer than I am really willing to contemplate). I could see my tipping creeping down to normal levels in a year or so, but also maybe not.
posted by babelfish at 5:56 PM on June 3, 2021


I’m still overtipping. It seems obvious that customer-facing people are still dealing with a lot of extra bullshit, maybe even moreso now than in the worst months of the pandemic.
posted by something something at 6:04 PM on June 3, 2021 [24 favorites]


We are not yet back to 100% capacity here in Illinois, and I think that has to factor into the equation somehow. Throughout the pandemic, when getting takeout, and now that we have actually dined in at a restaurant, we have been tipping at 50% of the bill rounded up to the nearest $5. Occasionally, we have stuck a $100 bill in the tip jar in lieu of adding a tip to the credit card for takeout. As we return to full capacity locally and the vaccination rate climbs, I'm sure we'll cut back on tipping a bit. We'll probably return slowly to our standard, which is usually 20-25%.
posted by DrGail at 6:18 PM on June 3, 2021


I can't imagine I'll be eating at a restaurant anytime soon, but we're still tipping 30% on delivery, rounding up more if the weather's awful or it's a holiday or something else makes that particular delivery tricky.

I don't see that changing in the near future. Restaurant workers and delivery drivers are still dealing with all sorts of nonsense over and above pre pandemic times, and doing so understaffed and underpaid, after a long stretch of lean months, so I can stay more comfortably isolated at home. The least I can do is compensate them well for it.

I'm in a midsize city in the US and I don't anticipate changing my tipping habits in the next several months, at least.
posted by Stacey at 6:28 PM on June 3, 2021 [2 favorites]


I am still tipping slightly extravagantly because I can afford to do so and it is one way to redistribute a tiny bit of wealth directly to other people. E.g. 25% on Costco/Instacart deliveries; minimum $10 on restaurant deliveries, which tends to work out to 30-50% most of the time; $20/visit to my laundry guy. I finally got a haircut after a year and tipped my stylist about triple what I normally would, to make up a little for the lean year and the appointments I couldn't schedule.

I intend to keep up the higher tips even though it's not so much about health and safety risks anymore. I don't know how to fix the problem of customer service workers having to deal with so many assholes, but I can at least boost their income a little.

The long term hope is that minimum wage is raised to a livable income, but I am not super hopeful about that happening any time soon.
posted by ktkt at 7:29 PM on June 3, 2021 [5 favorites]


Medium sized southern city here. We were solid 20 to 30% tippers before the pandemic, and we’re doing about the same now, but that goes on everything. Coffee, takeout, grocery delivery, etc. We’ve only done one sit down meal since this started (for our anniversary outdoors a couple weekends ago).

(I got my first tattoo in 15 months this week, and my tattoo artist got 50% before the pandemic and she gets that now because if I tip more she fusses).
posted by joycehealy at 7:42 PM on June 3, 2021


I'm in the northeast and I'm still tipping 40-50%
posted by Aquifer at 8:05 PM on June 3, 2021


I am fortunate that neither my wife nor I lost our jobs in the pandemic (we live in Portland, OR) and we are now vaxxed and able to eat out/go to our neighborhood dive when we want. We started tipping between 40-50% for takeout at the peak of lockdown, so that has now become my baseline when we go to restaurants and bars (which we do a lot less than before the pandemic).

I'm lucky/privileged enough to be able to make my ends meet, so the last thing I want to do, now that I fully understand the economic disadvantages that are built into the restaurant/bar industry for servers/cooks/bus staff, is to cheap out on compensating the people that actually do the work of giving my wife and I our fun Friday night or whatever.

So yeah, if you have the means, tip well.
posted by pdb at 8:47 PM on June 3, 2021 [3 favorites]


I guess part of the equation is what I'm tipping on. I got a burrito today and tipped 50%, which means I put a $5 bill in the jar. But my couple of sit down meals have been very pricy celebratory moments, so over 20% on a big meal hasn't felt super cheap?
posted by mark k at 9:57 PM on June 3, 2021


I’m still overtipping. It seems obvious that customer-facing people are still dealing with a lot of extra bullshit, maybe even moreso now than in the worst months of the pandemic.

Just wanted to say to everyone to please keep this up for a little while longer, because for every generous, neighborly person who is still overtipping, there is someone else like the person who tipped my brother SIX percent on a sit down meal last night.

People who have been willing to eat indoors at a restaurant for the past year are not people who tip well. If you are just going back to restaurants and can afford it, PLEASE give your servers a bonus.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 1:05 AM on June 4, 2021 [13 favorites]


I used to tip only 10-15%, but I found myself tipping 20+% nowadays, even for takeouts.
posted by kschang at 2:30 AM on June 4, 2021


20%--keeps me in the habit of doing it and 40-50% tips aren't going to be sustainable for me. I don't mind tipping but at a certain point it feels like I'm trying singlehandedly to make up for the owner's stinginess...
posted by kingdead at 6:05 AM on June 4, 2021 [1 favorite]


Small city, northern New England.

I haven't eaten at a restaurant yet (except for being treated for a birthday meal by my parents-- who are generous tippers -- at a place where the patronage was sparse because we were all seated at a distance from one another).

As for meals that I've paid for myself, that would be takeout, and, like Stacey, I'm solidly 30%, boosting it to 40% in precipitation or on holidays. And I'm ready and willing to keep this up. If I can afford to eat takeout, I can afford to tip, is my philosophy.

But I do feel (and this predates COVID) that it would be a nice damn change if restaurant owners started paying their employees a living wage so that people with a heart and a conscience didn't have to pick up the slack for assholes like the dude who tipped Snarl Furillo's brother 6 percent.

Another downside to this model: In restaurants and bars, it leaves public-facing workers at the mercy of patrons with a power jones, who make clear, covertly and overtly, that the size of the tip depends on the degree of groveling by the worker.

Anyway. Rant over.
posted by virago at 6:38 AM on June 4, 2021 [2 favorites]


We're tipping 25% then round up on the rare occasions we eat in. We tend to order and pick up from restaurants still, we tip usually 20% & round up or so on those, more by habit than anything else, but we do go to the same few small local restaurants regularly, weekly in some cases.

I hate tipping culture and miss being in Australia where you only tipped if someone went above and beyond, and people got paid a living wage and shock horror we still got good, friendly service.
posted by wwax at 9:30 AM on June 4, 2021 [1 favorite]


20% min to 30% normally. Tipped my favorite bar / bartender 50% my first night out and he was not happy - gave me a free smaller tab next time and said, “don’t do that again” very seriously. But I was just grateful for them and to be out above all else. He’s a good guy, and I think doesn’t want “charity.”
posted by glaucon at 9:32 AM on June 4, 2021


Mid-sized city but largest in my state. I'm still at 20%, same as before the pandemic. The math is easier to do in my head! I get the sense that this is unusually high compared to what most people tip (although I'm surprised to see so many people here saying they tip above 20%). That may not be a good reasoning, but tipping 30% or more would just make it infeasible to order out.
posted by dis_integration at 9:52 AM on June 4, 2021 [1 favorite]


I'd urge anyone reading this thread for information on norms to also search MetaFilter for previous threads on tipping. You'll learn that users who comment on tipping threads are generally exceptionally generous tippers, predating the pandemic.
posted by kickingtheground at 10:01 AM on June 4, 2021 [12 favorites]


I have been tipping 20% before, during, and ~after the pandemic, but I never get delivery--it's just been on takeout and restaurant dining when that was possible.
Meals under $10 I tip at least $2.
posted by exceptinsects at 10:31 AM on June 4, 2021 [1 favorite]


You'll learn that users who comment on tipping threads are generally exceptionally generous tippers, predating the pandemic.
Yes, it's far better to talk with service workers about their overall average tips. The general metafilter community would be appalled at how many people tip less than a dollar - just enough change to round up their purchase to end in zeros - on food. And a lot of people (like up to 20 percent of them) tip nothing at all. After my own stint of waiting tables, I started tipping 50% and I haven't changed that during the pandemic, nor do I plan to change it moving forward. I agree that everyone should just make a living wage. $2.16 an hour plus tips does not make ends meet.
posted by twelve cent archie at 11:38 AM on June 4, 2021 [3 favorites]


This recent thread from my local subreddit is also illuminating on this issue. It certainly seems true that people commenting on this metafilter post are not a very representative cross-section of what's actually going on out there.
posted by something something at 12:43 PM on June 4, 2021 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Relevant NY Times article from today with actual data from credit card processors: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/04/upshot/tipping-pandemic-new-york.html
posted by reptile at 1:03 PM on June 4, 2021 [4 favorites]


Yeah, this question is a great example of a self-selecting population. Nobody's going to be answering you here with "I leave one of those 'here's a tip, get a real job' cards"!
posted by Jobst at 1:10 PM on June 4, 2021


I think another relevant question is if folks are tipping for a wider range of businesses too. Just today I tipped when I picked up donuts, something I didn't really do pre-pandemic.
posted by FJT at 3:31 PM on June 4, 2021 [1 favorite]


Mind blown from Australia that you guys tip if you pick up take out. It would never have occurred to me that was a tipping occasion.
Tips here are probably well down, I think, but I don’t work in hospitality, because cash is used less, and a lot of my tips to bar staff, taxis or cafe counter staff are rounding up to the nearest dollar or five..
I will tip a delivery person, and tip for very good table service. But 5% or 10% is a sizeable tip.
posted by bystander at 5:18 AM on June 5, 2021


I'm going out way less, like twice since I got vaccinated all the way back in January. So I just don't think of these events as just eating out - these feel like proper occasions. The local Polish food joint was great and a true treat, but the chain out in exurbs? Just a garbage experience, why spend the cash for something I'm not enjoying?

Essentially, I don't have enough money to buy out of my feelings, so even if I tip more I have basically stopped eating out.
posted by zenon at 6:24 AM on June 7, 2021


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