This column originally appeared in Looped In NYC, our weekly newsletter for where to go and what to know.<\/p>\n
Tipping used to feel more straightforward: 15%-20% for restaurant bills, $1 or $2 per drink at bars, and spare change in tip jars at cafes, pizza shops and takeout restaurants.<\/p>\n
But factors including tap-to-pay on tablets and rising living costs, especially in New York City, have changed the tipping scene. Now, it seems like everywhere you go, you\u2019re prompted to tip, sometimes starting at 22% \u2014 even if it\u2019s just counter service. The rules and etiquette about tipping are becoming more unclear.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not a huge fan of the tablet system, mostly because it feels impersonal and can come across as a bit pushy. It\u2019s kind of like when someone reminds you to do something you were already planning to do. Putting money into a tip jar or tipping with a paper and pen feel more like genuine interactions to me.<\/p>\n
To get a better sense on what\u2019s an appropriate tip in the city, I talked with baristas, bartenders and customers at Mottley Kitchen in the South Bronx, The Terrace cocktail bar in Harlem, and MacDougal Street Ale House in Greenwich Village.<\/p>\n
There were a few rules I heard over and over in my conversations. This tends to be the consensus among both patrons and services workers:<\/p>\n
At coffee shops and cafes: If you have the financial means to tip, especially if you\u2019re sitting down, tip 15%-20%. But if you really can\u2019t afford more than your food or non-alcoholic drink, that\u2019s OK.At bars: Always tip 18%-20% and as much as 25% or higher if you get really good service or are a regular.If you can\u2019t afford to tip your bartender for drinks, don\u2019t buy alcohol.<\/p>\n
Katie Bishop owns Principles GI Coffee House in Gowanus, one of the few cafes in the city that doesn\u2019t ask for tips. She told me she\u2019s against tipping because she grew up with parents who struggled working for tips to survive. She also said tipping has gotten out of control in the last few years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe professions who have always had tipping, such as cafes, bars, restaurants \u2014 we are at the receiving end of tipping fatigue,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, the places that have traditionally relied on tips are getting lower tips because all these other industries that have never done tips started adding tips.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is there ever a time when not tipping is acceptable? A lot of people kept telling me, \u201cif you don\u2019t plan to tip, then don\u2019t go out.\u201d But I didn\u2019t like what that implied: Should someone who doesn\u2019t have a lot of money never go out, then? Especially if they\u2019re struggling to get by in a city as expensive as NYC?<\/p>\n
Jillian Pacheco, a manager at Mottley Kitchen, agreed with me. She\u2019s against tipping because she thinks service workers should earn a steady livable income. She told me she never takes tipping personally because everyone\u2019s financial situation is different. Not tipping says less about the person, but more about the state of the economy and how everything feels unaffordable, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still crave that human connection on a day-to-day basis. We still wanna go see people and interact with people,\u201d she said. \u201cThat kind of gives a classist tone if you’re just like, oh, you can’t go out if you can’t spend.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said what we really need are more third spaces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This column originally appeared in Looped In NYC, our weekly newsletter for where to go and what to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-191183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}