I get irritated when I pay cash at a counter and get asked, “How much change would you like back?” Well, your machine just told you how much!
I usually give a generous tip to Uber and Lyft drivers if they’re courteous and good drivers. Last week I took a Lyft about 2.5 miles to a medical appointment. The fare was about $9. I tipped $3. I don’t reckon this in percentage terms but want to reward those who are especially polite. OTOH I had a Lyft driver recently who showed up on the wrong side of the street (one way traffic) and he waited for me to cross the street, in a drizzle. It was about a $12 fare; I tipped him $1.
In general, in restaurants I tip 20%, sometimes a bit more if I know the waiter and also if I expect to return to the restaurant sometime.
Didn’t Uber and Lyft start out as no tipping? Wasn’t that one of the initial attractions over taxis?
These money threads drive me nuts.
And painters in my area don’t make an annual mean of $40-anything unless they’re working for a corporation/on staff or govt, union, or running their own business. The ones who are their own boss is another story. Or those who do a job, then leave. Not the little guys who do the work over a long period, in the hot sun. They don’t even have job security. Surveys I’ve seen range 28-40k. Low SES.
I generally don’t tip at takeout counters, might throw a dollar or change in the jar. Might not.
Minimum wage is low, 20k, if you work year round, to support a family.
We fuss over costs of college, not realizing many are less fortunate, physically working harder than most of us, scraping by.
With the exception of the sit down restaurant, I hate obligated gift giving and tip giving. I have little trouble not being generous with someone who hands their hand out expecting something. That being said, I usually do like to tip, but it is on my terms. In a nutshell… For me, tipping makes ME feel good.
My general rule of thumb is I think “will this $1, 10, 25, 50” mean more to this person or to me? Usually, I like to think it would mean more to them. I also picture my kid working behind the counter and what my few $$$ would mean to him.
We often, but not always, give painters, construction workers, plumbers, electricians extra. Sometimes, we just round up an extra $25-50 when we write the check. Sometimes, we hand cash to the worker. How much (or if at all) depends a lot of factors, such as the original quote, size of the business, how long they worked, how personable they are, do I feel a “connection” at all, how I feel about my own finances on that particular day, etc… When I give something, I like to think that this worker will go home to his family and say “Look. I got an extra XX. Let’s go do YY.” It makes me happy.
I am also in very appreciative for anyone who does a manual labor job. There is no way I could last more than a month. 4 hours of cleaning each Sunday leaves me exhausted. My hat is off to those who can do it all day, every day, year in and year out. Tipping is my way of showing them my appreciation for that effort.
A note about Uber - my kid worked as an Uber driver this summer as a way to earn extra cash on top of his internship. He liked it because he learned his way around his new city. He also said it was like doing dozens of job interviews. He learned how to talk to strangers, asking them about their lives and discussing his own. But, he also got fretted at their pay system. He got paid per mile. So, that 3 mile drive in rush hour traffic, he made next to nothing. The 20 mile trip to the airport at 3am was much more profitable, but it was hard to get those trips… not to mention… driving at 3am and working an office job… So tip your Uber driver!!! 
And my always happy-go lucky autistic nephew was a pizza delivery driver in an upper middle class area. Once, he worked all afternoon/evening one Super Bowl Sunday. Want to guess how much he got tipped? ZERO!!! I was floored. Yeah, I tip my pizza delivery guy much better now. I won’t miss the couple of dollars. It could mean a whole lot to someone else.
I think this is so regional. We’re in an area where minimum wage is set to be $15/hr and almost everyone is paying their employees that now. The trades are crazy expensive. $300/hr minimum for even the basic service call. Don’t even get me started on landscaping and snow removal. Even the teens in the neighborhood are getting close to $20/hr to babysit.
I absolutely minimally 20% tip wait staff at a sit down restaurant, my dog sitters, and hairdresser. But, I need to be careful because many places are now building in the tip - like for food delivery and even at sit down restaurants. We inadvertently double tipped a few times when we first moved here without realizing until we got our statement. We once ended up paying $55 for one pizza because we didn’t realize the delivery fee/tip were automatically added and then we further tipped the driver.
I’m amazed at the original post. People who are tipped: the pizza guy, servers at food places, the cab driver, the hairdresser, the valet who parks the car. That’s about it. At Christmas, I give the postman a card with a small cash gift because everyone does in my neighborhood. When the kids were in primary school, bus drivers and teachers got a little Xmas gift.
I’ve had every type of work done at my home, from new roofs, to new flooring, to driveways, etc… I do not tip any of those people. I don’t tip the plumber or the lawn guys or the trash collectors or the meter reader or the cable guy or the fed ex guy, or any of the other dozens of people who come to my home in the course of daily life providing services I’ve already paid for or have been quoted for. On one occasion, I gave extra cash tips to the laborers the contractor had hired to work on a job at my home. They deserved it because they went above and beyond.
Lately, I’ve been in restaurants where they automatically calculate a tip. The three suggested tips were 20%, 25%, and 30%!!! Since when was 20% the expected minimum tip? Yes, it’s very common now, but 30% is totally ridiculous. Furthermore, a lot of the precalculated tips are based on tax included, or are flat out wrong. Next time you see this, look carefully. They can and do lie.
I don’t understand why this has become a thing. Stop the madness!
ETA: I’m a personal tutor who costs less than an hour for a plumber, and no one ever tips me, even though I’m helping their children. I don’t expect them to. Why should they?
Added to my previous comment on tipping Uber and Lyft drivers. I live in university towns (yes, two of them – transitioning now). Most of the drivers are graduate students. They can use the cash. So if they meet the standards I give them 20% typically. But sometimes more and (when warranted) sometimes less.
On the machines here, tips are precalculated at 10, 15, and 20% If you don’t like tipping, just don’t. Follow your own convictions.
Look at mail carrier salaries. Far from min wage.
@ClassicMom98 's perspective is kind of like mine. I often think another $xx is something i can afford and may make a difference to the person behind the counter.
I often tip the barista’s at my favorite local owned coffee shop because they know me, they know my order, we chat about our lives, and I know how hard it is to find good workers for those jobs. Even though they might be making more than minimum wage, I am happy to add on another dollar because I can. I do not tip at Dunkin Donuts where I have ordered on the app on the road and am picking up.
I am inconsistent in tipping my dog walker and groomer. Sometimes I add on and sometimes I do not. I always tip my hairdresser and even though it seems silly, it is part of the custom in that field, so I just mentally add it to the cost of the service. And again, my hairdresser listens to my neurotic requests for cut or color and is now a friend. And I think being a good tipper has helped me get an appointment in a pinch, etc.
I think extending tipping to places like Panera is ridiculous and if I worked in corporate there, I would eliminate that. The experience in a chain place is so different from an indie-owned place that I just can’t compare them.
Here’s the USPS’s policy on tipping.
https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2012/pb22349/html/cover_025.htm
Employee Tipping and Gift-Receiving Policy
All postal employees, including carriers, must comply with the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch. Under these federal regulations, carriers are permitted to accept a gift worth $20 or less from a customer per occasion, such as Christmas. However, cash and cash equivalents, such as checks or gift cards that can be exchanged for cash, must never be accepted in any amount. Furthermore, no employee may accept more than $50 worth of gifts from any one customer in any one calendar year period.
We tipped the three guys who came recently to take our grand piano to New Jersey for restoration. We want them to handle it gently at its destination!
I buy lunch, make coffee and tip sometimes a lot ( >$150) on large projects. I pay them by check. On follow up work, I often get low quotes and for the house painters they were willing to drive more than an hour at the same rate. Why because of the sandwiches. I also tip the house cleaner. For plumbers and electricians, nothing. We pay the landscaper often in cash.
@threeofthree $5.15?*(%$ Wow. I had no idea it was that low anywhere in the US. You wouldn’t get anyone in our area to do ANYTHING for less than $30/hour. And trades would be far more.