(NEXSTAR) — While tipping at restaurants and bars has been an accepted part of American gastronomy for a long time, customers lately say they’re feeling the pinch of tipping more than they used to. A popular phrase you might have heard is “tipflation.”
And while many restaurant-goers — especially those who themselves have worked in tip-based jobs — argue you shouldn’t eat out if you can’t afford to tip, not all American consumers view service this way.
Recently, Yelp published its State of the Restaurant Industry 2024 report, which tracked user review data for restaurants between May 2023 and April 2024. The analysis revealed not only a rise in self-service in even “nicer” restaurants, but also fatigue when it comes to tipping.
Going through review data, Yelp found that there was significant increase in gratuity-related mentions by customers. Here’s the difference in the occurrence of these phrases/words compared to May 2020-April 2021.
| Phrase | Increase |
| “Tip screen” | +811% |
| “Gratuity” | +111% |
| “Tip was included” | +91% |
| “Tipping” | +81% |
| “No tip” | +71% |
| “Didn’t tip” | +63% |
In terms of the word “tipflation,” Yelp found mentions of the word went up 399% between May 2023 and April 2024, Yelp says.
Data released by YouGov on Tuesday also reveals how Americans are feeling about tipping. YouGov’s survey of 1,148 U.S. adults found that 62% of Americans tip 15-20% when dining out and receiving average service. Meanwhile, about 25% said they leave a tip smaller than 15% for average service — including 4% who said they leave nothing.
So how did all of this happen?
To start with, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was devastating to the restaurant industry and as a result, more Americans stepped up to support their favorite places and front-line workers. In a Forbes Advisor survey last year, 32% of the 2,000 Americans polled said they tip more than they did before the pandemic.
But as the restaurant industry opened back up, the feeling of “needing” to tip more didn’t go away for many customers. Meanwhile, restaurants in general did not scale back on the foregrounding of tipping screens and/or automated gratuity. Then, pandemic-caused inflation began and Americans are still feeling the impact of higher prices everywhere.
Inflation began inflating around 2021 and 32% of Americans polled by Forbes said they began tipping less. Meanwhile, 27% said they tip more and 37% said their tipping remained the same.
Given the state of the economy — not to mention an increasingly popular opinion that restaurants (not customers) should be responsible for their workers’ pay — and the ever-present tipping screens, it’s easy to see where some adults might start to feel resentful.
“We are subjected to that app, that screen, almost every day when we buy a coffee or a sandwich,” etiquette expert Diane Gottsman, the founder of the Protocol School of Texas, previously told Nexstar. “So we have to get used to this form of payment… People think it’s manipulative, they resent it, and their perceptions of service go down.”
A restaurant customer’s tipping mentality may be highly influenced by whether or not they have ever worked for tips, according to Pew Research Center. Last summer, the center surveyed 11,945 U.S. adults to gauge their tipping attitudes compared to their previous work experiences (or lack of work experience) in the service industry.
Pew found that about 57% of U.S. adults have not experienced tip-based work and this group is less likely to understand how much they should tip and whether they should even tip at all.
YouGov data also found that when it comes to being critical of waitstaff performance for tipping, younger adults are less likely to reduce their tips than older Americans. While “rudeness from staff” is the top reason across all age groups for reducing a tip, only 68% of 18-29 year-olds said that would cause them to tip less.
Where Americans don’t think they should leave a tip
While a majority of the 2,000 Americans polled by Forbes Advisor said they believe sit-down restaurants and food delivery drivers are an occasion for tipping, there were also some situations where they said tipping should not be expected.
- Food trucks — 40% said they don’t believe they should leave a tip
- Fast-casual restaurants — 38%
- Picking up takeout food — 36%
- Coffee shops — 34%
As previously mentioned, however, not everyone agrees on when and where to tip. Despite 58% saying they tip at sit-down restaurants, another 32% still said they don’t believe a tip should always be expected for a table server. Meanwhile, another 32% also said they don’t believe they should necessarily tip a delivery driver.
What do you think?
A server’s wage
While average numbers for server minimum wage might look decent on paper — in fact, OpenTable reports that between 2020 and 2022, hourly rates increased to $18.71 — the reality behind those numbers is a little different, as OpenTable notes.
For positions like servers, hosts, line cooks, bussers and bartenders, flat hourly pay rate is typically set at a minimum, known as a cash wage. As reported by NerdWallet in January, the absolute lowest a restaurant can pay an employee each hour is $2.13, which some do. Then, a server’s pay is considered to meet federal minimum wage as customer tips beef up their hourly wage with tips. But tips are not consistent, meaning some of the hardest working people in a restaurant could take home the least.
Nexstar’s Michael Bartiromo contributed to this story.