People are a little bit stingier in barber chairs and Ubers than they were just a few years ago.
The shares of adults who say they always tip their hair stylists, servers at sit-down restaurants and food delivery people have each fallen 8 percentage points since 2021, according to a Bankrate survey released Wednesday. That rate slipped 7 percentage points for taxi and ride-hail drivers over the same period.
Three years ago, the economy was reopening from the pandemic and inflation was higher than it is now, but so was concern for front-line workers.
At the time, three-quarters of consumers reported always tipping restaurant servers, but today just two-thirds do. Despite modest upticks since last year, barely more than half of people now count themselves reliable tippers of hairdressers (55%) and food delivery drivers (51%), while only 41% say the same when it comes to ordering a ride.
The survey reflects Americans’ growing ease bypassing ubiquitous tipping prompts, from coffeeshops to airport terminals in the post-Covid economy, especially as sticker prices have risen. While consumer spending has held remarkably steady, many households are feeling the squeeze from persistent inflation and tightening their belts accordingly. Some of that newfound caution may be factoring into when, where and how much people tip.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The shares of adults who say they always tip their hair stylists, servers at sit-down restaurants and food delivery people have each fallen 8 percentage points since 2021, according to a Bankrate survey released Wednesday.
The survey reflects Americans’ growing ease bypassing ubiquitous tipping prompts, from coffeeshops to airport terminals in the post-Covid economy, especially as sticker prices have risen.
Roughly equal shares said their tips have stayed flat since last year as those who saw them decline (36% and 35%, respectively), according to a recent survey by SpotOn, the maker of a digital payment platform used by eateries and retail shops.
Some patrons may be turned off by preset tip amounts, said Hans Frech La Rosa, senior behavioral researcher at Duke University’s Common Cents Lab.
The Bankrate findings also come amid a broader reshuffling of consumers’ leisure habits, with spending pullbacks in some areas and upticks in others — in many cases along existing socioeconomic fault lines.
Other consumer shifts are more situational than zero-sum: In most major U.S. cities, for example, transaction volumes have fallen sharply midday during the workweek, but they’ve been more than offset by increases on evenings and weekends, the digital payments process Square said last month.
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