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Topics: US News, Money, Food and Drink
Tom Wood
Topics: US News, Money, Food and Drink
The US states that are the best and worst when it comes to tipping have been revealed through a new piece of research by industry experts.
Tipping culture is a controversial issue, not just outside the USA where it’s not quite as customary, but also within America as well.
Of course, there’s a good reason that people tip, not just making up for people’s wages and rewarding good service, but it seems as if some places aren’t as keen on forking over the cash as others.
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Things are expensive these days, so maybe that has something to do with it, and it would be pretty strange to judge entire areas by their tipping percentage, but that is exactly the kind of research that has been done by tipping manager Toast.
They’d know about this sort of thing, after all.
Toast works with around 93,000 restaurants across the USA, and released a ‘Restaurant Trends Report’ that – they said – aggregated sales data from selected partners across the country on the platform.
If you live in Delaware – congratulations – you’re amongst the most generous tippers in these United States.
Folks from ‘The First State’ – the USA’s second smallest state – tip their restaurant servers at a whopping 21.5 percent.
That’s way above the national average that they arrived at, which – across all 50 states – was 18.9 percent in the second quarter of 2023.
In last year’s first quarter, that was 19.0 percent.
Behind Delaware in the rankings are Indiana and Kentucky, who are locked in a tie at 20.6 percent.
But, that’s not what you’re really here for, is it?
You want to know where the cheapest states are, don’t you?
Well – and you’ll either be hugely surprised or absolutely not at all – the lowest average tipping rates were to be found in California, who on average tipped only 17.4 percent.
Also thrashing around down at the bottom of this particular barrel were states like Washington at 18 percent, Nevada at 18.2 percent, and Florida at 18.3 percent.
The results showing Delaware at the top and California at the bottom are exactly the same as they were in 2021, according to the latest report.
The company also compiled the tipping rates for full-service restaurants, including casual and fine-dining restaurants.
According to Toast, tipping in full-service restaurants dropped to 19.4 percent over the second quarter of 2023, down from 19.7 percent.
That’s the lowest since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Obviously, it’s a personal decision how much to tip, and it’s usually based on a variety of things, but the recommended amount is between 15 and 20 percent.