New study shows Canadians are fed up with tipping, expert weighs in

A new survey by Lightspeed Commerce finds 25% of Canadians are tipping less when they go out and 53% say rising costs are affecting their tipping habits. 67% say they feel pressure to tip while dining out and 36% say they tip to avoid looking cheap. To tip or not to tip? That is the question, and Jamie Peters, Dean of Accounting, Finance and Economics of Maryville University, is here to give us the answers. Jamie, I think it's pretty clear from this survey Canadians are feeling overwhelmed when it comes to tipping. What are your thoughts? It's a very common feeling, I have to tell you, especially as we have moved from a more cash based society to a card based society during COVID-19, we're seeing those tips come much more in our face. And as a result is that people are having much more mixed emotions about tipping than they were before the pandemic. Yeah, it seems like we're getting asked more and more to tip on things unexpectedly. Would you say that it was the pandemic that really sparked that uptick? It was a combination of things. The pandemic was the main source. It was not uncommon for to have a tip jar out, for instance, at a coffee shop, and you left your change associated with it. But when we started having COVID-19 and people started being worried about using cash and spreading germs because they were transferring it, most people moved to using some sort of charge card. And as a result, a lot of businesses started adding tip screens to their various ways to pay. And that's really where we see a lot of the pushback. It's a confusing topic, no doubt. And notably in this survey, Canadians were more supportive of tipping for delivery over gratuity at cafes and over the counter. So where do we tip? Where can we save a few dollars? If you've had a nice dinner, please continue, continue to tip. If you've had your hair done and your hairdresser has done a really nice job, continue to tip. Where you can start start thinking about where to save money is going to be in those situations where it has not been traditional to tip, where you've had a barista or you have not actually received the service and they're asking you to do it up front when you're doing carry out instead of delivery. Those are the places where it is acceptable to not tip. So in some parts of the world, tipping is discouraged or even frowned upon. Why is it different in North America? Well, partly, unfortunately, it's because of us here in the South. the United States has a $2.15 minimum wage for tipped earners, and so the tipping is their salary. So it has become an obligation, which is why you often see tipping here in the United States to be more of 20 to 25% because people understand that this is a major source of income for individuals like servers up in Canada where there is very few provinces where there is a difference between minimum wage and tipped minimum wage, It is much stayed closer to the 10 to 15% that it traditionally was throughout the North America. OK, Jamie, thank you for giving us a better understanding of tipping. That's Jamie Peters from the Merrillville University School of Business.