Diners, Servers and TikTok Think Tipping Culture Is Out of Control

In recent years, there has been a significant change in tipping. While tipping at full-service, sit-down restaurants has long been commonplace in America, according to business technology company Square, nearly 75% of all food and beverage transactions now ask for a tip, extending to online orders and kiosks.

Customers are even increasingly prompted for a gratuity from cashiers, who have historically not relied on tips to the extent that servers do. The nudging comes not from the cashiers themselves, who often avoid eye contact during this portion of the transaction, but from a mandatory screen asking customers how much they’d like to tip at bakeries, cafes, concession stands and bodegas.

This raises many questions: How heavily is the cashier relying on tips? What’s the protocol? These aren’t things that the customer has much time to consider, and there’s pressure to just tap 20% and be done with it.

This experience is so pervasive that it’s become a TikTok sketch. Someone will perform a small favor, like holding a bag, only to be presented with the tip screen afterward. One comment is pervasive: “Tipping culture is out of control.”

@_annvaz Tipping is getting out of control 😯 #funny #tipping #tippingculture #funnyvideos #funnymoments #meme #joke #canyouholdthis #canyouholdthischallenge #canyouholdthisforme #fyp ♬ original sound – Anastasia 🤍

But these jokes stem from serious concerns about the state of tipping. This phenomenon has been labeled “tipping fatigue” or “tipflation,” and it makes grabbing a bite to eat – or holding someone’s bag –  not only more expensive but uncomfortable as well.

According to the Pew Research Center, 72% of Americans say that tipping is expected in more places compared with five years ago. Only about a third of those polled said they have a good idea of when to tip and how much.

Seventy-seven percent of those surveyed by Pew say that tipping largely has to do with excellent customer service and, by and large, the tipping prompt is not viewed that way. Establishments such as coffee and ice cream shops have traditionally had tip jars, but those were always understated and intuitive, offering a low-key invitation to either reward quality service or even just drop some change you didn’t feel like carrying around. The touch-screen replacements are more invasive.

Factored in with the reality that food employees are far less likely to be making a livable wage, the iPad isn’t just annoying or inconvenient – it also adds uncomfortable stakes to what should be a simple transaction.

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there is no place in America where a full-time worker making minimum wage can afford to rent a modest apartment. In Texas specifically, you’d need to make between $19 and $26 an hour to clear that bar. The federal minimum wage (which Texas abides by) is $7.25 an hour, and data for the job title “restaurant cashier” on Talent.com shows an average hourly wage of $11.25.

This, of course, doesn’t account for servers in sit-down restaurants who make the sub-minimum “tipped” wage of $2.13, which is allowed under the assumption that tips will push servers’ hourly earnings to above the federal minimum. That’s a longstanding system which is also changing with the advent of new technology.

Ashley (who didn’t want to use her last name to protect her job) is a server at a popular sit-down brunch spot in Dallas that recently introduced handheld card readers for payment. She says the technology is as awkward for her as it is for customers. She’s also noticed a decrease in her earnings.

“It’s been even worse for us [since] we introduced the tablets into the restaurant,” she says. “I usually feel so awkward. I look away when I give them the tablet, so I end up getting stiffed. It’s so much easier when they have a pen and they physically have to write zeroes on the no tip line.”

Another factor cutting into her tips is the restaurant’s policy of tip-sharing.

“As a server, most of us are required to tip out to the other front-of-house and back-of-house workers like bartenders, baristas, bussers and runners, which significantly affects the credit card tips we make,” Ashley says. “This past Sunday, I made around $240 originally from credit card tips, but I had to tip out $100 to different front-of-house workers.”

We looked at job listings for the restaurant where Ashley works, where starting pay for front-of-house positions ranges from minimum wage to $13 an hour. This is higher than the servers’ hourly wage, but still well below the figures put forth by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

The question becomes, do the tips collected through the tablet close that income gap?

One Fair Wage, an organization advocating for livable wages for restaurant workers, released a study showing that 54% of restaurant workers polled were thinking of leaving the industry, but 78% would stay if they were making a living wage. You could look at data like that and deduce that the customer has not just the opportunity to be part of the solution by leaving a tip, but a social obligation. But do they? Restaurant workers are far from the only people struggling to make a living wage. Is it reasonable to expect customers (and coworkers, as in Ashley’s case) who are also just trying to get by to pick up a restaurant’s slack when it comes to livable wages?