I understand you don’t mean me, I just think people are looking for guidance as the landscape changes.
I look the same child to a McDonald’s that was essentially all kiosks! There was one young lady that I was actually afraid for as the place filled up with rowdy teens.
I understand there is still staff in the kitchen cooking food.
This was not the McDonald’s I went to (in Sacramento.)
ETA I swore I’d never post on another tipping thread! 
The cost of food has been way too low for way too long. Salaries in food have been way too low for way too long. Wage stagnation gave people unrealistic expectations of what meals should cost (especially in relation to how little the staff still gets paid). It’s going to hurt people’s wallets as we get adjusted to hospitality workers making a living wage., inflation, climate impacts, real estate costs, labor costs. I am one that believes the restaurant industry as we know it is dying and we some day soon will see mostly corporate chains everywhere (as we already do) and very exclusive dining experiences for the wealthy, Mom and Pops will scarcely be able to afford to enter the game.
In this scenario I would have selected “no yup’. Mainly because those defaults in this situation would have pissed me off.
There are three separate issues that come up on tipping conversations and that confound answers IMHO.
1- tipped wages - in this instance these employees are not making a reduced wage because of expected tipping. So why should we be expected to tip them? Some strange social contract that if you touch food you should get tips?) do you tip the grocery store clerk? The pharmacy cashier at CVS? I don’t.
2- minimum wage - agreed it is not a living wage but that is a separate issue. We all would like to make more.
3- who is responsible for wages - employers or customers. There are servers that I would prefer to fire than tip - but I’m not their employer and that is t my choice. So why do I still have to pay their wage essentially. I strongly feel the person who hired, trained, and works with you everyday should be in control of your wages - but I get that isn’t how we are set up - so I tip.
I believe fixing wages between employers and employees is a better strategy. I think just tipping more and more, isn’t fixing anything in the long run.
So, just raise the price of the food so that consumers can’t afford it and pay their staff right? Sounds good to me.
We are already paying it - in tips …
Not when you select no tip.
Came back to thus discussion to say I think the only solution is stopping tipping.
I have been working myself to nope all non sit down and decrease the sitdown. 10 to 15 pct pre.
My friendly local cafe (counter service) owner says she was staying alive on tips. I never really figured that out, she knew her customers would pay more and she didn’t raise prices.
These employees dont factor tips when choosing these jobs. That doesnt mean we should stop tipping those that do. Its not a black and white thing. I tip my plumber, my barber, and other service people that rely on steady business, unlike the cashier at CVS
Having worked with pretty low pay in medicine for years and now working in the public sector in medicine but with better pay because I’m in a senior role - I have experienced plenty of difficult ‘customers’ but never expected a tip.
People in hospitality should get paid in accordance with their expertise and role.
Huh?
I round up at Starbucks drive thru. My first tip of the New Year was $0.62 on a $6.38 Flat White.
Right, but that isn’t the system now and punishing people because you don’t like the system and the way it has been structured isn’t the answer. I don’t tip someone every time my water glass is refilled. You chose a low paying job in medicine that didn’t have a tipping system. Hospitality workers chose these low paying jobs expecting tips. Police Officers deal with difficult people, they don’t expect tips. But, then again, no one told them they would be tipped. Unlike the hospitality workers that don’t get any of the benefits that Police Officers get. Or the pension.
People in hospitality should get paid in accordance with their expertise and role. Agreed. And there should be less guns on the streets. Unfortunately, neither of those is happening.
agree with what you’re saying
.(some police officers and safety inspectors also take ‘tips’ )
I think most people who grew up working in restos or bars in North America have a very different approach to tipping than people who did not.
One group that is notoriously bad at tipping in Ontario is school teachers, in my experience, whether it has been at group dinners with friends, or group dinners with people in my ski club over the past 20 year . Not the teachers whose parents ran restaurants or worked as taxi drivers, but the teachers who have no connection to the hospitality business.
One time a server forgot to put our meals on the bill, only our drinks, at a small affordable restaurant in a part of town that struggles. It was just my former teacher friend (she was also the daughter of a high school principal and a teacher and a sister of a teacher) and myself. I wanted to leave enough money to cover everything and the tip, in case the server’s mistake was uncovered by the boss. She wanted to pay only for the drinks and tip at 15 percent. She saw taking advantage of a server’s error as Sticking it to the Man (Man, as in the restaurant owner). She was a civil servant being paid a very good salary by the provincial govt to try to encourage people to gamble safely, a programme run by the government who also runs the casinos and slots.
I left enough money to cover the food and a tip. We had eaten all the food that we ordered and it was not an intentional comp.
In law enforcement (my current field), those are called something else. 
lol, what you call them is what they’re called up here, too
The issue with “tipping” (be it for counter service, or table service, or for any service) is that what has traditionally been a gratuity (i.e. something given voluntarily or beyond obligation) has now become obligatory by virtue of custom, social norms, or just peer pressure.
The issue with tipping is that the system was created and acknowledged where restaurant staff have been acceptably underpaid and treated like trained seals to earn their tips and to be punished if the customer is unsatisfied (even if it has nothing to do with the server).
If restaurant owners had not been allowed to treat their staff so poorly and expected customers to make up the difference, we wouldn’t be where we are. It is how the government has allowed these businesses to underpay their staff systematically to create the tipping system. It’s not the underpaid workers’ fault. It is not just a custom or a norm-- it is a financial system created by government policies to create a separate fee/payment system for restaurant staff who are generally looked at as 4th class citizens trying to get over on customers with their imagined tip extortion.
There has also been, what feels like, a dramatic shift in tipping during and post pandemic. Pre-pandemic a counter only restaurant didn’t even have tipping as an option, other than a tip jar on the counter. It’s actually only very recently that places like a McDonalds or Five Guys even had credit cards as an option and only during the pandemic when they had a tip percent as part of the payment process.
Expectations have changed quickly it feels to me.
The problem with tipping is that most people like it. Yogiism? Workers prefer tipping overall, and most Americans prefer to be in charge of the final 20% and adjust as needed, as opposed to prices being 20-30% higher.
The problem is with the new POS system, but can you blame them? I dont see it as pushing for tips, but simply giving you the opportunity. Just like a tip jar.
As for restaurants, these are my rules and what I always advised tourists on the various boards (especially Trip Advisor)
If the service has been exceptional – Tip 20%
If the service has been a little less than stellar. Decent, but room for improvement – Tip 20%
If your water hasn’t been filled, your food hasn’t arrived on a timely basis, your burger temperature was not up to par, and no one asked you if you like your food – Tip 20%
If your server made numerous errors with your order, hasn’t smiled the entire time, and looks rather stressed out – Tip 20%
If the server along with another server collaborate to follow you to the bathroom, blindfold and kidnap you via the back alley, lock you in an apartment for 15 days and let you watch nothing but Full House reruns before leaving you in the middle of a bear infested forest naked – Tip 15%. This is where I draw the line
Meaning, like someone said, it has become too automatic, which means 20% included or not, doesnt make a difference to me. But to many Americans it does, hence here we are.
I admit I tip more now on take-out because I rarely dine in. I only dined inside restaurants maybe 6 times in 2025. That is the most I’ve dined inside restaurants since 2020.
I get take-out food around 120 times a year, if I was to include every take-out sandwich, slice of pizza, and take-out dinner.
I am planning to keep closer track this year to see exactly how many times I dine out or get take-out each month.
Before 2020, I was dining inside restaurants around 120 times a year. I was travelling at least 6 weeks each year where most meals were at restaurants. I was eating out at least 4 times most weekends when I was home, plus dinner out before theatre and opera and for birthdays. I was also eating at the pub twice a month with my ski club during ski season. And I was eating lunch at a ski hill cafeteria which had a tip jar around 8 Saturdays each ski season.
My restaurant, pub, and bar spending patterns have changed a lot in 6 years. Despite inflation and tipping more, I’m still spending less on restaurant food than I was spending in 2019, because I’m ordering less food (for health mostly), ordering less frequently (for health mostly), and ordering less fancy multi course menus (no afternoon span 
).
