Many Americans will tip at restaurants, even for terrible service

Tipping point

While adding a healthy percentage onto restaurant bills has been the norm for nearly as long as the hospitality industry has existed, the integration of touch-screen tipping — everywhere from coffee shops, to drive-thrus, to self-checkout kiosks — has meant that many Americans are now feeling the gratuity squeeze.

Domino’s recently announced a bizarre solution to beat tipping tedium: yet more tipping, launching a “You Tip, We Tip” promotion last week that gives US customers discounts on future orders for every $3+ they leave for drivers.

And, if such a promotion is going to work anywhere, it’s in America. A YouGov survey of ~10,000 adults conducted last May found that 10% of Americans would tip “every time” they go to a restaurant with terrible service, compared to just 1% of Danish pollees. In fact, nearly half of all Americans surveyed said they would likely tip for a terrible experience.

That tipping culture is fast-developing into tipping fatigue, as screens imploring consumers to give a little something extra become ubiquitous. Since digital payments became commonplace during the pandemic, 1 in 3 people now feel pressured to tip, according to a 2023 Forbes study, and nearly two-thirds reported tipping more digitally than they would with cash.