The chaos of tipping culture in America

Erik predicted near the beginning of the pandemic that it would leave few permanent traces in our culture, like its Spanish Flu predecessor a century earlier. I agreed with this prediction, which, as the pandemic ends in at least the sociological sense, can begin to be tested empirically.

The one big change the pandemic seems to have wrought is a shift in attitudes toward remote work, which now has a much stronger foothold among knowledge class workers than it did three years ago. A lesser but still to me interesting change is the shift in the tipping culture, which was already happening for technological reasons (touch screens primarily), but was exacerbated by the pandemic:

Customers and workers today are confronted with a radically different tipping culture compared to just a few years ago — without any clear norms. Although consumers are accustomed to tipping waiters, bartenders and other service workers, tipping a barista or cashier may be a new phenomenon for many shoppers. It’s being driven in large part by changes in technology that have enabled business owners to more easily shift the costs of compensating workers directly to customers.

“I don’t know how much you’re supposed to tip and I study this,” said Michael Lynn, a professor of consumer behavior and marketing at Cornell University and one of the leading researchers on US tipping habits.

Adding to the changing dynamics, customers were encouraged to tip generously during the pandemic to help keep restaurants and stores afloat, raising expectations. Total tips for full-service restaurants were up 25% during the latest quarter compared to a year ago, while tips at quick-service restaurants were up 17%, according to data from Square.

The shift to digital payments also accelerated during the pandemic, leading stores to replace old-fashioned cash tip jars with tablet touch screens. But these screens and the procedures for digital tipping have proven more intrusive than a low-pressure cash tip jar with a few bucks in it.

Customers are overwhelmed by the number of places where they now have the option to tip and feel pressure about whether to add a gratuity and for how much. Some people deliberately walk away from the screen without doing anything to avoid making a decision, say etiquette experts who study tipping culture and consumer behavior.

Tipping can be an emotionally charged decision. Attitudes towards tipping in these new settings vary widely.

Here’s a pre-pandemic glimpse of the state of the discourse from Derek Thompson in 2019:

Here’s a simple question. It’s Sunday. You order coffee and a simple breakfast—eggs, bacon, toast—at a local diner. The service is efficient, but not memorable. The bill comes, and it’s $10. What’s the tip?

• $1.50, according to typical online guides for foreign travelers in America
• $2.00 at least, according to The Washington Post
• $3.00 for sure, according to The New York Times
• Whatever the hell you want, according to some guys on Twitter

I have no confidence that anything I write here will persuade readers to increase or decrease their average tip. To me, the range of answers raises a larger question: Why are we still crowdfunding worker salaries when tippers so clearly do not know what the hell they’re doing?

I’ve just found what looks like an amusing if far too voluble diatribe on the beginnings of the tipping culture in America, entitled The Itching Palm (1916), that I may read if I’m stuck in an airport over the holidays; I would be shocked if the esoterically erudite LGM readership does not already feature at least one savant who is already familiar with this text.

My favorite Boulder restaurant simply tacks 20% onto the listed prices in the form of a “fair wage and wellness fee” for employees (it does this for both sit-down meals and takeout, and we’ve been getting takeout exclusively from this place since March of 2020). I think this is a much better system than the standard tipping regime, although I understand it’s what they use in socialist Europe where this is no freedom, so it probably isn’t going to become too common soon.