Tipping Fatigue: Restaurant tips see decline amid rising service charges and inflation fears

According to Toast, a restaurant financial company, tips in America have been on the decline and Texas ranked 42nd in average tip amount with 18.8%

According to studies, the second quarter of 2023 showed that people usually leave around 18.9% of the total bill as a tip at restaurants. This is amount slightly less than what they were leaving in the first quarter of 2023, which was 19.0%.

At fancy restaurants, staff sometimes get paid less money as an hourly wage because they rely on tips. These tips went down from 19.7% in the first quarter to 19.4% in the second quarter of 2023. This is the lowest it's been since the pandemic started.

In fast-food restaurants, tips have been slowly going down since 2018 but they actually went up a tiny bit from 16.0% to 16.1% in the second quarter of 2023.

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Why is this happening? Toast shares that some experts think people might be getting tired of feeling like they have to leave big tips, especially because during the COVID-19 pandemic, people felt a lot of pressure to tip more. Also, more and more businesses are asking for tips, which makes people think about it more.

Toast shares that another reason could be inflation which might make people less willing to give big tips if they feel like they don't have much money left.

Other things like where you live, the rules about how much people get paid in restaurants, and even how old you are can also affect how much you tip. There's a growing idea that employers should pay their workers better, which might be changing how much people feel they need to tip.

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Lastly, some restaurants are starting to add service charges to the bill, which can make people less likely to leave a big tip. In places like Los Angeles and Chicago, people have even started keeping track of these charges to see how it's affecting their bills.