A common debate within my friends circle is tipping, or lack thereof for some in my group. How much is the norm for average service? What about for someone that goes above and beyond? Do you still tip if your water glass is dry the entire meal? According to a recent study by a point-of-sale company Lavu, analyzed and compiled its tips received through their systems into a list of states with the highest and lowest average tippers and it may be surprising to some or a wakeup to others.
What if tipping was removed from our society’s norm? Would your service increase or decrease if the server’s current wages of a couple of dollars an hour was increased to account for previous levels of combined wages and tips? I know myself I still tip even if I received poor service (which I probably should not), so that does not leave much incentive for the service to improve their quality of service, if they even care in the first place. I suppose rewards in higher wages could be then given to top servers instead of making the same amount as their poor co-worker. In the end I bet there is not too much of a gap in total tips for a day between the highest and lowest server, so perhaps going to a higher wage without tips could be more beneficial for both the server and the customer experience.
What classifies a good tip? Typically that answer, based on acceptable service, is typically 20%. The most common method for figuring out the tip amount is taking 10% of the bill total, doubling, and rounding up to the nearest dollar. For example, if your bill is $23.00, 10% of that would be $2.30, doubled would be $4.60, rounded up to the next dollar would equal a $5.00 tip, slightly over 20% at around 22%. Leaving change, although probably acceptable as it is still money in a server’s pocket at the end of the day, seems cheap to me, so I always round up. See if you fall into the states with the lowest average tippers.
Top 10 Worst Tipping States (by Average Tip):
- Hawaii 18.67%
- Idaho 18.63%
- Minnesota 18.51%
- Maine 18.3%
- South Dakota 18.26%
- Wyoming 18.22%
- District of Columbia 18.1%
- Utah 18.04%
- Montana 17.68%
- North Dakota 16.66%