People are a little bit stingier in barber chairs and Ubers than they were just a few years ago.
The shares of adults who say they always tip their hair stylists, servers at sit-down restaurants and food delivery people have each fallen 8 percentage points since 2021, according to a Bankrate survey released Wednesday. That rate slipped 7 percentage points for taxi and ride-hail drivers over the same period.
Three years ago, the economy was reopening from the pandemic and inflation was higher than it is now, but so was concern for front-line workers.
At the time, three-quarters of consumers reported always tipping restaurant servers, but today just two-thirds do. Despite modest upticks since last year, barely more than half of people now count themselves reliable tippers of hairdressers (55%) and food delivery drivers (51%), while only 41% say the same when it comes to ordering a ride.
The survey reflects Americans’ growing ease bypassing ubiquitous tipping prompts, from coffeeshops to airport terminals in the post-Covid economy, especially as sticker prices have risen. While consumer spending has held remarkably steady, many households are feeling the squeeze from persistent inflation and tightening their belts accordingly. Some of that newfound caution may be factoring into when, where and how much people tip.
The reality is that many of these jobs rely on tips. If they were to “pay them a living wage” then the cost of the service would just go up.
Don’t get me wrong, I want tipping to go away, and it’s gotten absurd where people are asking for tips now. But it’s absolutely stingy to not tip in these places where traditionally they would be tipped. If you don’t want to tip, don’t buy their services. It should be a recognized part of the cost: you just think it should be made official, some think it should be based on the quality of service they received.
The cost of the service includes the tip if a tip is expected. The cost would stay the same if you stopped tipping and the establishment raised sticker prices to compensate.
If you count the tip as “part of the service” yes I agree that the price would stay the same. But the way I’m saying it is that there is the charge for service/goods, and then there is the tip. If we get rid of tipping, in favor of high wages, the service charge goes up.
The cost would not increase. That is not how supply and demand works.
It is extremely unlikely this has not been explained to you before.
One of the reasons that the no tipping movement during the mid 2010s failed is because they had to raise prices to give the staff the same pay they would have received with tipping included. And shoppers found that to be a turn off.
It’s just perception. It’s the some bullshit logic why sale taxes are not included in the price and calculated at purchase… makes the product seem cheaper than it actually is.
I agree. Right now with tipping the true cost is obscured. If you take away tipping, the services would just charge more.
I tip 10-15%, how are prices so much higher that then jump into the 30s for a meal? Most of my meals our, tip included, don’t hit the $30 threshold. I think that their prices, even accounting for tips included, were off.
He thinks people like tipping because they have power? That’s kind of fucked.
They spend a bunch of time saying that the locations they included tips in payed $5-6 less per hour. How can they even say they ran a location with tips included if they didn’t even match the tipped wages? They overcharged for food and still didn’t pay the staff enough. I’d say that’s a lot of mismanagement rather than a failure of a no-tipping restaurant.
Here’s another core concept that places don’t seem to understand, if your business cannot make it without underpaying staff then you shouldn’t be in business. Someone else who can manage it will fill your gap in the market or the market will correct itself.
Your response is to cite an article proving my point and not understand that?
My article certainly does not prove your point. It shows that when companies replaced tipping with high wages, they had to raise the cost of their goods/services. Which is exactly what I said.
No. It says when they raised their prices according to something other than supply and demand people stopped buying from them.
Because prices are controlled by supply and demand. Not costs.
The fact that they also don’t understand that doesn’t mean you do.
Good. The cost should go up, because that’s what it costs the business to run if they pay an actual living wage.