Who Really Tips the Most?
What do you care about most as a server? Let’s get real – tips. Hopefully, you already have some know-how on maximizing your tips. But sometimes it’s useful to have the cold, hard facts. We’ve collected some tip statistics that you may find informative. Knowledge is power, after all.
- The average tip is about 15%. It does vary a little by region, a very little. Guess which region tips the highest? The South, at 16.27% on average. Look like there’s something to be said for southern hospitality. The lowest tipping region is the Midwest at 15.01%. But as you can see, the difference between the highest and lowest isn’t much.
- Guess who has a median tip rate of 20%? Men do, and so do Republicans. Statistics are always tricky, though, aren’t they? A median isn’t true across the board, and this is important because while men are more likely to leave an exceptionally high tip, they are also more likely than women to leave no tip at all. Women may tip less on average, but they are more reliable tippers. The information here may be less useful with respect to political affiliation, since it’s unlikely you’ll be able to identify the preference of your customers. But it is interesting, at least.
- Credit or debit card users also have a median tip rate of 20%. It would be nice if you could work in a way to ask at the outset whether they’ll be paying cash or card…
- This is one battle the Boomers win over the Millennials. The average tip rate for millennials is 16%, but Boomers average at 20%. This is perhaps not surprising, given the income difference between the two groups.
- Sadly, about 18% of people report that they don’t tip as a rule, and it appears the younger the customer, the more likely the customer is to fall into this group.
As is always true with statistics, take it with a grain of salt. The numbers are definitely interesting, but to be honest, they’re kind of all over the place. Even the same sources sometimes report different numbers at different times, and there’s really no telling what methodology determines these numbers.
At Certified On The Fly, we’ve been in your shoes. While the safest bet is to give your best service every time, we hope the data collected here is one more tool in your server arsenal.
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