Ever wondered which States tip the best, and which tip the worst? Today, we’ve got some data to help answer that.
Today, Quartz brings us even more data on Americans’ tipping habits. Previously, Kitchenette has covered some of the raw numbers on this same data. But what we didn’t have available at the time was a service-by-service breakdown that got into tipping categorical subdivisions, such as restaurants vs. coffee shops. This new exploration of the data, however, dives right into the nitty-gritty. The image above is not the map. The map lies through the link. Stop asking me for a key to a stock image of the US.
The national average tip is now 16.5% of the bill at restaurants, with the range sitting from the worst at 14.6% (Nevada) and the best at 20.1% (West Virginia). The percentage of people who leave a tip ranges from 80% in Maine down to 42% in New Jersey. On average, 57% of Americans leave tips in restaurants. While that number seems low, it’s also due to the nature of the businesses that use Square as opposed to other computer services, many of which are fast casual-type places that involve up-front payment with food then brought to your table. It also doesn’t take into account people who pay by credit card but tip in cash — an increasingly-common trend as people learn how utterly screwed by the system servers tend to get. The important thing here, as it was the last time, isn’t so much the overall numbers as it is the state-to-state variance, which effectively should ignore the overall numbers issues.
Interestingly, Delaware, which was by FAR the worst last time this data was released, shows insufficient data for a representative sample size. The article does not list why.
Again, this utilizes only Square, so it’s by no means comprehensive — there’s no Micros, no POSI, no Squirrel, no Aloha, or any of the other payment systems people use. But all else considered, it’s still a decently-representative sample considering that we’ve now been able to subdivide it into shop type. We know, for instance, that people in Maine are way nicer to service people than those in New Jersey. OK, we already knew that, but you get the idea.
Image via AlexanderZam/Shutterstock.