How much do most people leave as a tip for the people who serve their food?
Answer: 18-21.9%
Questions:
- What is your personal tipping policy? Is it consistent or does it depend on certain circumstances?
- Have you ever worked at a job where part of your compensation was based on tips? Did it affect how you treated customers?
- What factors do you believe impact how much people tip? How do you think income, gender or age influence tipping practices?
- How do you feel about tipping as a practice overall?
Behind the numbers (Finder):
“If you work for tips, I’ve got both good and bad news. About two-fifths (43%) of the adult population tip their wait staff between 18% and 21.9% on average. A further 15% say they leave an average 22% to 26% of the bill as a gratuity, and another roughly 6% say they leave a tip of more than 26%. So, that’s 64% of the population being decent about acknowledging good service — or about 163 million Americans.
And yet, there’s still 36% of the population out there leaving less than 18%, representing about 91.5 million Americans. If you’re waiting tables, it means you’ve got about a 1 in 3 chance of providing service to someone that’s less than generous with their tipping to the tune of less than 18% of the bill.
Of those who tip under 18% on average, 17% say they leave between 14% and 17.9%, 10% say they drop 10% to 13.9% and nearly 2% saying they leave less than 10%. Remarkably, a little over 7% of American adults say they don’t tip at all — almost 19 million people.”
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On the subject of tips, can you make any as an Uber driver? Try this Uber driver simulation in the NGPF Arcade and find out.
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Want to learn more about the rationale behind our financial decision making? Check out NGPF’s Behavioral Economics unit.
About
the Author
Ryan Wood
Ryan grew up with and maintains a love for learning. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay with a degree in Business Administration and worked in sports marketing for a number of years. After living in Texas, Colorado, Tennessee, and Minnesota, the call of education eventually brought Ryan back to his home state of Wisconsin where he was a Business and Marketing teacher for three years. In his free time he likes to spend time with his wife and daughter, play basketball, read, and go fishing. Now with NGPF, Ryan is excited to help teachers lead the most important course their students will ever take.