As The Works employee rung me up for my usual everything bagel with cream cheese, I noticed a small change on the tablet in front of me. Selected on the screen was the 15% tip option. Thinking to myself, “Is slicing a bagel really worth a tip now?” I decided to find out why this tipping increase was occurring.
Because of the pandemic, tipping on takeout, fast food and other services became regular because of the financial state these businesses were in. From there, tipping became increasingly common thanks to changes in payment technology. Now, in 2024, I have seen the practice of tipping on every service being turned into the new social norm, in large part thanks to companies pushing for them, “Tipflation,” as it’s being called, seems to be the new fad in America.
I started my investigation by talking to Addy Veno (‘24) a server. Her opinion on tipping is simple, “I think tips are based on like if you’re giving a good service to people.” Giving a good service and working with tips as a bonus are completely different things as Veno continued, “I make $3.50 an hour base salary, so I HAVE to give a good service in order for people to tip me.” “I don’t think people should be forced to tip Baristas or anything like that, their pay doesn’t have tips as a part of it, like mine,” said Veno.
The thought that some coffee shops or other non-sit-down restaurants expect you to tip was completely new to me, so I decided to do some research. During COVID-19, increased overhead from food prices, and a lack of in-person dining made tipping on take-out become a normal thing for a lot of families, including mine. My family doesn’t usually spend extra money, so I was surprised when my mom forwarded articles to me like “A Guide to Tipping Generously in the Pandemic” and “Tipping in 2020, what to Change.” Media like this created a ‘tipping black hole’ by changing tip culture from only being acceptable in some settings to “the more the better.” While headlines like these may have caused tipflation initially, another key player in the increase of tips was new technology.
Point-of-sale (POS) systems are the iPad-like paying devices you have seen everywhere. Before Covid, people would usually pay through a worker and tips would be collected via a tip jar or another physical way. Because of the pandemic, noncontact tip options were developed. These tablets come with a tipping feature option, resulting in the always awkward tip amount selection box seen on almost all POS tablets today. Businesses realized that having the option to tip on a POS is half the battle. Having a split-second choice to tip makes the process more of an impulsive decision and generates more tips.
Think about it like this, you are eating at a restaurant, a dining service takes much longer and lets you think about how much to tip. For a lot of families, including mine, the tip comes into conversation every time we eat out. Compare this to a Starbucks transaction where you are forced to choose how much to tip in less than a minute. Companies understand this as in February 2020, there was just 43.4% of POS’ that had the tipping option compared to 73.8% just 3 years later according to USA Today.
POS brands like Square make getting more tips even easier with features like being able to select the tip increment. Instead of having the tip options be 15%, 20% and 25% can choose to make it 20%, 25% and 30%. Essentially forcing the customer to tip more if they want to tip.
As the pandemic came and went, new tipping practices stayed the same. In fact, today in America, citizens say they tip 21% on average compared to 15% in 2019. Jake Baver, a veteran of the service industry, thinks tipping for takeout compared to restaurant service are two completely different things. “I will tip a little bit on takeout just because I understand that there’s still effort that’s being put in. But the idea that you’re tipping takeout in the same ballpark as an actual in-restaurant service, I think is kind of preposterous.”
In 2024, tipflation continues to rise, as 72% of Americans report being asked to tip higher amounts and being asked to tip generally more according to Pew Research. Regardless of what you personally believe, tip culture and tipflation is here to stay and businesses continue to be a driving force. Next time you are presented with a POS tipping opportunity, think about if that’s the norm you want to live in.
– Mairtin Sweetman
Mouth of the River 
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