Trust Magazine

America’s New Tipping Culture

Notworthy

In this Issue:

  • Winter 2024
  • 2023: Looking Back on a Year of Milestones
  • How States Manage Their Budgets
  • Indigenous Leaders Protects Canada's Boreal Forest
  • Evidence-Based Solutions Led to Milestones in 2023
  • The Beauty of Chilean Patagonia
  • Bridging Divides: A Call for Stronger Leadership
  • U.S. Women Make Gains in Highest-Paying Occupations
  • Utah Leads the Way on Wildlife Crossings
  • Philadelphia's Wage Tax Has Little Impact for Residents
  • America's New Tipping Culture
  • A Roadmap for Managing Wildfire Costs
  • Navigating the U.S. Political Landscape
  • 5 Facts About Hispanic Americans and Health Care
  • Debt Collection Cases Dominate Civil Dockets
  • The Human Impact of Solving Plastic Pollution
  • It's Time to Fix Housing in America
  • Return on Investment
  • The Growing Threat of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
  • View All Other Issues
America’s New Tipping Culture
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A broad majority of Americans say they’re being asked to tip service workers more frequently than in the past. Around 7 in 10 U.S. adults (72%) say tipping is expected in more places today than it was five years ago, a finding that tracks with anecdotal reporting and has even been dubbed “tipflation.” But even as Americans say they’re being asked to tip more often, relatively few have a great deal of confidence about when and how to do so. Only about a third say it’s extremely or very easy to know whether (34%) or how much (33%) to tip for different types of services.

Nor is there consensus on whether tipping—which is built into the pay structures and business models of many service industries—is more of a choice or an obligation for consumers. Around 2 in 10 Americans (21%) say it’s more of a choice, while 29% say it’s more of an obligation. The largest share (49%) says it depends on the situation, underscoring the lack of a single set of rules or expectations.

Pew Research Center surveyed nearly 12,000 U.S. adults to find out how they feel about the common, yet sometimes confusing, custom of tipping, including whether they themselves would or wouldn’t tip in specific situations.

The survey found that the public is more likely to oppose (40%) than favor (24%) suggested tip amounts, and Americans broadly oppose (72%) automatic service charges. Americans’ tipping behaviors also vary widely by situation. For example, among those who use each type of service, 92% say they always or often leave a tip when eating at sit-down restaurants, while just 25% say the same when ordering a coffee. For most people (77%), the quality of the service they receive is a major factor in deciding whether and how much to tip.

The survey comes at a time when tipping—a practice that Americans broadly embrace yet have long felt conflicted about—is undergoing significant structural and technological changes. These changes include the expansion of digital payment platforms and devices that encourage tipping as well as the spread of mandatory service charges.

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As the pandemic took hold in March 2020, Opera Philadelphia shut off its stage lights and locked its doors and was forced to transform itself from a tradition-bound classical arts organization into an internet film producer.

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Wildfires: Burning Through State Budgets

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Wildfires in the United States have become more catastrophic and expensive in recent years, with the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Forest Service nearly doubling their combined spending on wildfire management in the last decade. Wildfire management consists of preparing for, fighting, recovering from, and reducing the risk of fires. To execute these activities, states, localities, the federal government, and Tribes, as well as nongovernment entities such as nonprofit organizations and private property owners, participate in a complex system of responsibilities and funding dictated by land ownership and an interconnected set of cooperative agreements.