The Blubber

Tipping at full-service restaurants has fallen to the lowest level since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, per CNBC.

Meanwhile, Tipping has become a commonplace, especially in the food and hospitality industry, and although it's a culture, a recent survey by Bankrate found that 30% of Americans think that tipping has gotten "out of control."

This comes as contactless and digital payment prompts often come with an initial predetermined option. The automatic option for users to pay in tips would range from 15% to 30%.

With that, 30% of Americans said that the culture of tipping has "gotten out of control." Bankrate's senior industry analyst, Ted Rossman, gave a statement regarding this occurrence.

Rossman: “You have to go out of your way to not tip, and that’s what a lot of people resent,"

Cornell University School of Hotel Administration's professor of consumer behavior and marketing, Michael Lynn, also shared another perspective regarding tips.

Lynn: “The terms may be understating it... It’s more than fatigue, it’s irritation... We’ve had the option of tipping for a long time because of tip jars, but you could kind of ignore it... The technology is making it harder to say no, and it’s making it harder to tip a small amount.”

In February, the IRS issued a new program for employers to report the tips that employees made.

In March, it was reported that the minimum expectation for tips has risen from 15% to 20%.

See flow at unusualwhales.com/flow.

Other News:

• The IRS has issued a new program for employers to report tips employees made
• The minimum expectation for tips has risen from 15% to 20%, it seems, with 18% as the bare minimum for decent service