It’s no secret that in the United States, tipping is the norm. In recent years, though, many Americans feel as if it has become too normal: stateside shoppers now encounter point-of-sale apps on touch-screens requesting extra cash almost everywhere, from bars and restaurants to self-checkout markets and convenience stores. And consumers are feeling it, with many claiming the practice is “out of control” and significantly reducing the amount of gratuity they leave behind.
Despite this tip fatigue, recent data from YouGov shows that approximately 46 percent of Americans will still tip their server or bartender after receiving “poor,” or “terrible” service. Of this 46 percent, 10 percent of Americans claim to tip every time, 11 percent most times, 9 percent half the time, and 16 percent saying they will tip “sometimes” when they receive poor service.
The survey — which was carried out to examine the differences in American and European tipping behaviors — sampled 10,000 people worldwide including 1,000 U.S. residents. Of the respondents, 77 percent say they normally tip waitstaff, with 56 percent claiming their reason for doing so is to reward a good service, 24 percent of tippers doing so because staff isn’t paid as much as they should be, and the remaining 15 feeling social pressure to leave gratuity. In Europe, where tipping culture is nowhere near as prominent, the percentage of survey participants who say they normally tip waitstaff drops dramatically: take France (37 percent), Sweden (34 percent), and Italy (27 percent) as examples
While the majority of Americans do say they tip as a reward for a positive experience, it’s possible that their true reasoning may lie with societal pressures. When examining the 21 percent of Americans who say they tip “every time” or “most times” they’ve received terrible service, 15 percent of the group also reported tipping as a “reward for good service.”
On the other end of the spectrum, YouGov found that 32 percent of Americans have never tipped after receiving terrible service, including 39 percent of those who reported a reward being their main motivation for tipping. When service is just okay, YouGov reports that 60 percent of Americans will leave a tip most times, with that figure climbing to 80 percent when they receive good service.
