How much does an American normally tip? The answer could depend on the customer’s age and gender, according to a new survey.
Millennials and men are the least likely to leave tips, found a survey conducted by YouGov for CreditCards.com. But when they do tip, they tend to tip more than do women and baby boomers.
“Men and millennials are boom or bust tippers,” Ted Rossman, an industry analyst for CreditCards.com, said. “They’re the most likely to stiff you entirely, but they’re also the most likely to give you a really good tip.”
An average tip for millennials is about 22%, compared to the baby boomers’ 17%. Nine out of 10 baby boomers, however, said they always tip at sit-down restaurants, while 1 out of every 3 millennials admitted to tipping sporadically, if at all.
Women are a bit more consistent than men: 80% of females (of all ages) tip restaurant servers every time, compared with 74% of men.
The numbers confirm an ongoing trend among the younger generation: Millennials don’t tip as often as their elders do. Maybe it’s the thoughtlessness of youth. But it could be sincere belief. Millennials are “more likely to say they’d like to do away with the tipping culture, even if it means paying higher food prices,” Rossman said. It could be a lack of empathy as fewer millennials have the experience of waiting tables as a summer job.
Don’t call millennials stingy, though. When it comes to charitable giving, those born between the years of 1981 and 1996 give a much higher share of their income than do baby boomers or Generation X, according to a survey conducted by Fidelity Charitable.
So millennials don’t mind parting with their money; they just don’t have as much of it. Millennial workers with college degrees tend to make an average of $36,000 per year, according to the Pew Research Center, which is lower than the inflation-adjusted $38,900 baby boomers made when they were the same age in the 1980s.
Turns out the millennials’ woe is bad news for the average waitress.
