Tip or Nah? Do I even have to tip here?

How we decide each verdict

Every situation on this site gets one of three verdicts and a normal range. Here is exactly how we land on them.

The three verdicts

  • Skip it — you're not a jerk. No tipped-wage worker depends on this, and no real service happened beyond a counter handoff. Tapping zero breaks no etiquette rule. Think self-checkout, a coffee over the counter, a retail register.
  • Totally optional. Some service happened, or a worker may benefit, but there's no firm expectation. A modest tip is kind; zero is defensible. Think food truck, buffet, hotel housekeeping.
  • Yes, it's expected. This is tipped work in the traditional sense, often a tipped-minimum-wage or gig job where the tip is real income. Skipping it shorts someone's pay. Think restaurant servers, bartenders, delivery drivers, salons.

How the range is set

The normal range is the band mainstream US etiquette and consumer guidance agree on, not a number we invented. The Emily Post Institute anchors most of them: 15–20% pre-tax for sit-down service, about 10% at a buffet, 15–20% for hair, nails, and massage, 15–20% for a taxi or rideshare, and $2–$5 a day for hotel housekeeping. For per-item services we cite flat dollars, like $1–$2 per bag for a bellhop. Where guides disagree, we give the common middle and say so.

The deciding question

Behind every verdict is one test: is this a tip-dependent job, and was a real service performed? Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act a tipped worker can be paid a cash wage of just $2.13 an hour, against the $7.25 regular minimum, with tips meant to cover the gap (U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #15). That is a federal floor only; many states require a higher tipped wage or ban the tip credit. A barista or retail cashier on a regular wage is a different case, and we sort by that reality rather than by the tablet's default button.

Sources and updates

Each page lists the sources behind its verdict, and the full list lives on the sources page. Where we cite survey figures, we date them: the Pew Research Center tipping study is from 2023, and Bankrate's tipping survey is updated yearly. Norms shift, so we review the ranges as new data appears. Found something out of step with current guidance? Tell us.

This is general etiquette guidance, not financial or legal advice, and US tipping customs vary by region.