This is not another thread to debate the pros and cons of tipping. What I want to know is why has the % of the meal that you are supposed to leave as a tip gone up over the years. I am not American so I may be incorrect but by following the tipping threads it seems that many years ago 10% was the expected tip, then it went up to 15% and now it seems like it is closer to 20%.
It can’t be related to inflation because as the price of a meal went up so would the value of the tip.
I never heard of 10% as being the standard (I’m 39). The standard for good service is still 15% and for very good service it’s 20%. I think many think if they don’t tip 20% they’ll be seen as a cheap ass.
I disagree with you that 10% was the standard. For sit-down service in a resturant, I’d always seen 15% as the norm, to be adjusted based on the perception of the quality of service.
I also disagree that increases in meal prices would necessarily obviate any need to increase tip percentages due to inflation. In the US resturant servers may be paid well below the minimum wage, because of the assumption that the servers are going to be tipped and so make up the difference. Unfortunately, the minimum wage numbers for all job categories tend to lag behind inflation by many years. I don’t recall when the last increase to the Federal minimum wage laws went through but ISTR that there have been 10 year blocks, or longer, where there was no increase. So, even though the meal prices went up, the server’s income outside of tips will often remain constant. Or more accurately, lose purchasing power, compared to the past.
And so some people may choose to increase their tip percentage to compensate for that. But that’s not something I’ve seen as a change in the standards expected at large, just a personal choice I’ve seen some people make.
There may also be local variations, based on those economic considerations. Some locales have a huge disparity between the minimum living wage one must earn, and the minimum wage that can be paid. In these markets, again, some people choose to increase their tipping percentage to try to compensate. And, for those areas, the local consensus may well change the local expectations of what a “proper” tip percentage might be. NYC, AIUI, is one such location.
I can remember when the standard for tips was 10%. I’m pushing 60 so my recollections (a) probably go back farther than most on this board, and (b) may suffer from it.
The argument at the time for the increase from 10% to 15% was inflation. I didn’t buy it at the time and I don’t buy it now. The wage that servers are paid is insignificant relative to the tip, especially in pricier restaurants, so servers have a built in adjustment for inflation. Furthermore I remember seeing studies over the years showing that prices for discretionary income activities such as eating out, movies, theater, etc, outpace the overall rate of inflation. (No cite, I’m afraid, just my memory.) If that’s the case servers should be able to stay ahead of any inflation without the need for an increase in tip percentage.
Since you bring up age, that seems reasonable. I’m almost 40, so I figure I’ve seen about 30 years for tipping behavior, and I got my number from my parents. YMMV, of course.
Have you ever let a really old person tip? They think that anything over 10% is wild extravagance!
Yes, by building bigger tips into the system we compensate for the low wages of the servers and other staff. It’s like everything else today, the base charge seems low but then you add up all the fees, surcharges, etc and it’s not so low.
I remember 10% and 12%. I’m 41 and from the Midwest, where tipping percentages I think have traditionally lagged. But I vividly remember carrying a card with me to “figure tip” that had an amount as low as 8% on it. I also remember the howl that went up (I was in college) when 15% became “standard.”
Regarding the rest of your post - I also don’t buy it. Its proportional - and as inflation increases (and restaurants are fuller and fuller) waitstaff gets raises through increased tips - without needing to raise the tip amount.
Its like commission sales - commission salespeople will tell you that their commission certainly hasn’t increased (and in many cases its gone down) - but the increase in price means they keep pace.
I’m only in my mid-30s but I actually remember grumblings from my youth among my parents’ circle that tipping was sliding up the scale from 10-12% to 15%. Sometimes you remember the more worthless things and, there ya go.
Anyway, I’ve remained of the opinion that 15% is an acceptable baseline. I get the impression that the restaurants themselves has encouraged larger tipping. Both with the minimum gratuity for large parties (usually around 18%) and on the receipts where you often find a helpful “15% Tip = XXX, 20% Tip = XXX”.
I understand the minimum gratuity rule and don’t have an issue with it but it does inch the bar up in my mind. Likewise, I don’t know if the receipts have followed trends or vice versa but, as presented, it makes you look like you’re choosing the lesser cheapskate option when you pick 15 over 20.
The tip itself compensates for the low base wage of servers. As inflation increases the price of a meal, the tip - even when held as a constant percent - increases the overall salary of the servers, thus no need to inflate the tipping %.
This is wild speculation, but I’m gonna guess that it has something to do with the dramatic increase in wealth inequality in the United States over the last 50 years.
Commission sales is a very similar field. Some commission sales is commission only - no base pay - not even minimum wage. Others are arrangements with a small stipend - but often that isn’t minimum wage either. Yet commissions haven’t increased (and have decreased in many industries) over the past twenty years. Sales people continue to earn good incomes (arguably - there is a lot of grumbling if commissions get cut) because the cost of what they are selling goes up - just like waitstaff.
No one feels obligated to compensate the car salesman for the fact that he hasn’t gotten a commission raise in years by paying him more than the car is worth or giving him a tip, I don’t tip the real estate agent and say “oh, no - 7% - you’ve been getting that for years - here is 9%” - why do people feel this way about waitstaff?
I really think the reason is an effort (perhaps subconsciously) by waitstaff. There’s really only one person in the whole world who actually knows how much people collectively actually tip, and that’s the server. Everybody else gets individual opinions - from their parents, from friends, from a tourist guidebook, or from a server. Three of these will be imprecise (even if unbiased), and one of these is precise and accurate, but biased.
Whenever a range is given - either directly, as “I was a server and people generally tip 10-15%” or indirectly (e.g. “10% = XX%, 15% = YY%” on your receipt) - people generally give towards the high end. Nobody wants to be a cheapskate.
Over time, the bottom range of tippers gets weeded out, and now “most people” tip 13%-18%. People start posting on message boards about how nobody tips 10% any more and how 20% tips are common, and the range edges upwards.
Incidentally, tipping percentage increase is a phenomenon that’s real. 10-15% was the range when I first learning tipping (~20 years ago), and now it’s definitely 15-20%, if not higher.
The problem is that it’s hard to tell whether this is a function of:
Time - tipping percentage everywhere has gone up.
Geographic Location - where I live now, people tip more than people where I lived growing up.
Restaurants - Chinese restaurants (which I used to frequent more frequently) expect lower tips.
Personal changes - my parents started tipping a lot more when my mom worked at a restaurant and realized they were on the low end.
Bad information - maybe people lied to me before about how much to tip; maybe they’re lying to me now.
Another agreement that, at least in the midwest, 10% was typical. I waited table in the mid-80s. 10% was common, while business lunches tended to be a bit over that.
As for inflation of that? I look at a $17 tab, and think “Ok, I could leave $2 or I could leave $3. The extra dollar isn’t going to affect me much.” And I leave the $3. I also I tend to tip better (percentage wise) at cheaper restaurants.
I’m 56, and from New York, and it has always been 15%, as far as I know. Maybe that’s why I got such good service when I lived in Illinois. I think geography plays a big role.
I’m tipping more now, but I think it is because I have more money, care more about good service, and don’t feel that the price of restaurant meals has gone up very much. I tip 15% for adequate service, but am happy to go higher on good service, high enough I’ve actually been thanked. I think a wait person who contributes to the enjoyment of a meal, by good suggestions, for instance, deserves it.
I have noted that people who grew up in the Depression seem to have a problem with higher tips.
I think it’s because food and meal prices didn’t keep up with inflation. The latest jump from 15% to 20% happened after a long time of meal price stagnation, prices at resteraunts seemed to be fairly constant for many years, if not a decade. Now that seems to be correcting a bit, and the 20% was never firm, it appears like it may be sliding back to 15% - or at least somewhere inbetween 15-20%.
Until recently, my understanding of tipping was you give 10% to the wait person if he or she just shows up, around 15% for standard service, and 20% for service above and beyond the call of duty. However, I read an article in my local paper stating percentages have gone up noticeably in the last few years. In fact, the article stated that superlative service warranted tips in the 30% to 33% range, average tips should be between 20% to 25%, and any tips below 18% should be regarded as crimes against humanity. (These percentages, by the way, were not for restaurants in some large sophisticated urban center but for a smaller city that has been long notorious as being full of tightwads and cheapskates.)
Well, that’s just insane. I tip around 15% (well, 1/6th; easier to calculate), and if you want more than that, you need to earn it. (If you want less than that, you can earn it, too.)
If a server ever let slip to me that they felt they were entitled to a 20-25% tip, I’d consider that a threat and decrease my tip accordingly.