In North America, tipping food at restaurants is as much a part of the dining experience as reading a menu. And in Canada, diners’ tips as a percentage of their bill are rising.
Data shows increases in provinces during the pandemic, while, anecdotally, experts say tip rates started creeping up a few years before COVID-19 entered the picture. Reasons for this range from the altruism of diners during the pandemic to the practice of some restaurants changing their payment prompts, according to food and hospitality industry experts.
A survey conducted by Restaurants Canada in April 2022 found that 44 percent of Canadians surveyed said they tip a higher percentage of their bill when dining at a table-service restaurant compared to before the pandemic. While the standard tip for table service across Canada was about 15 per cent before the pandemic, as of April Canadians said they were tipping an average of 17.6 per cent.
James Rillett, central vice-president of Restaurants Canada, attributes these changes mostly to sympathetic patrons excited to return to restaurants after pandemic-related dining closures and eager to support staff.
“I think as people realize that a lot of servers and all the restaurant employees missed a lot of time when we were closed or had restrictions, people are saying they want to recognize what the servers went through,” Rilette told CTVNews. ca phone interview Friday.
“I think it’s generally a good feeling that comes from being in a restaurant.”
Rillett pointed out that some provinces with the biggest increases in customer tipping rates, such as Ontario, also experienced some of the longest dining hall closures during the pandemic. In Ontario, 53 per cent of respondents said they tip more when dining out compared to before the pandemic, now tipping an average of 18.9 per cent of the bill after tax.
In British Columbia, where a lower percentage of respondents say they tip more than before the pandemic, one restaurant manager says tips at his location are on average higher than during pandemic closures, but roughly on par with pre-pandemic rates.
Hitesh Verma runs Montana BBQ and Bar in Tsawwassen, British Columbia. He said tipping rates have dropped to an average of between 8 and 12 percent during the pandemic shutdown, when diners can only order takeout. However, he said tips have returned to pre-pandemic levels of roughly 17 to 18 percent as dining halls reopened.
“I would say it was about the same or not that much of a difference from before the pandemic,” he told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview Thursday.
HOW TIPS ARE CHANGING
In a phenomenon called “tip inflation,” University of Guelph economist Michael Von Masow said tip rates can rise due to a number of “organic” factors, such as changing social norms, and external factors such as prompts for tip percentages in restaurant menus and debit machines.
While the pandemic has accelerated some of these trends, von Massow says they were growing before March 2020.
“I think there are two ways that tips go up,” he told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview Friday. “The first one… happens organically. We have conversations, we hear stories on the news about how little people make in the restaurant industry, and we just feel like the social norm is changing, the social norm is pushing us and we’re tipping more. I think that kind of organic growth accelerated before the pandemic hit,” he said.
Von Masow added that altruism during the pandemic likely served to accelerate this rising tipping standard in Canada.
“The other thing that affects tipping is the signals that restaurants are sending to us, so we have these nudges going on,” he said.
One way restaurants encourage diners to leave higher tips, von Massow explained, is by listing suggested tip percentages on the menu or programming them into the debit terminal, since most diners use a debit or credit card to pay for your food.
Although the typical tip for table service in a Canadian restaurant is 15 percent or more, von Masow said a growing number of restaurants across the country are programming their debit machines to give tips starting at 18 or even 20 percent.
“Psychologically, do we want to push the button that’s the lowest amount, or are they kind of trying to push us toward that middle amount?” Von Masow said, “And I think to some extent we’ve seen those numbers go up as a way for something like guilt or pressuring us to tip more.”
While tipping in restaurants is a societal norm and something many employees rely on as part of their income, von Masow said no one should feel pressured to tip more than the standard rate. If a diner is presented with a debit machine that prompts for a tip percentage higher than what they think is appropriate, he said they should ignore the prompt and enter a custom tip percentage. Most debit machines allow for customized tip percentages and dollar amounts, he noted.
“Tipping is a social norm,” he said. “But it’s totally a choice, and you have to be comfortable with what you choose.”
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