wsj.com
www.wsj.com

Summary

Tipping in U.S. restaurants has dropped to 19.3%, the lowest in six years, driven by frustration over rising menu prices and increased prompts for tips in non-traditional settings.

Only 38% of consumers tipped 20% or more in 2024, down from 56% in 2021, reflecting tighter budgets.

Diners are cutting back on outings, spending less, and tipping less. Some restaurants are adding service fees, further reducing tips.

Worker advocacy groups are pushing to eliminate the tipped-wage system, while the restaurant industry warns these shifts hurt business and employees.

Key cities like D.C. and Chicago are phasing in higher minimum wages for tipped workers.

Non-paywall link

  • FabledAepitaph@lemmy.world
    20·
    15 hours ago

    I used to love ordering pizza for delivery, and I’d give like 5-10 bucks as a tip which might be 30 or 50% just depending. But now nobody does their own delivery anymore, I pay extra for the food because they’re outsourcing to Door Dash, and it takes two hours to get a pizza.

    Delivery is dead as far as I can tell. All that’s left is going through the fast food drive-through which is like 12-15 bucks nowadays. I’d rather just eat at home.

    The only time I go out nowadays is when I’m with a friend.

    • JWBananas@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      11 hours ago

      I pay extra for the food because they’re outsourcing to Door Dash, and it takes two hours to get a pizza.

      It takes 2 hours because they’re sending a bid to drivers for your delivery contract, which may also include someone else’s delivery on the same route, for a base pay of $2 plus your tip. After enough drivers decline that, they add 25 cents and send it around again. This process repeats until someone (hopefully) eventually accepts it. And – whoops – the merchant’'s contract with DoorDash requires the driver to have a pizza bag. So the bid only even gets seen by the subset of drivers who do.

      That’s $2, plus your tip. And that’s if the merchant was nice enough to actually pass that tip along when they outsourced the delivery. They aren’t contractually required to do so, and some don’t.

      As an unpaid independent contractor, if I can see it’s an outsourced order (placed through the merchant instead of through the delivery marketplace), I won’t even accept it, because it’s also going to mean losing 10-20 minutes of unpaid time standing around waiting for the merchant (who sent out the contract way too early) to actually start making your pizza, that they already lied about being ready when they sent a notification to you and to me. It’s nearly always a disaster.

      Edit to add: Just order from Domino’s, they do everything in-house.