How much do you tip? Why most Canadians feel pressured to give extra
Whether dining at a restaurant or getting your nails done, most Canadians likely expect at the end of the service you may have to tip — but with the high cost of living, a majority of people are now giving a thumbs-down to the idea of tipping.
“They’re already charging me $7 for a latte that I can drink, it’s repulsive to ask for tips for making a drink or pouring coffee,” Toronto customer Edwin Ng, 46, said in an interview with Global News.
Ng isn’t the only Canadian who may feel this way about tipping, with a recent survey of 1,500 Canadians by Lightspeed Commerce Inc. finding 67 per cent felt pressure to tip, with 54 per cent saying inflation impacted their ability to do so.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, tipping appears to have moved beyond the usual places for tips like a restaurant or hair salon, with Bruce McAdams saying more “nontraditional” businesses like dry cleaners or oil change shops are bringing in tipping. He calls this phenomenon “tip creeps.”
“Tipping as a practice has evolved, particularly since the (COVID-19) pandemic,” McAdams, associate professor at the University of Guelph’s school of hospitality, food and tourism management, said in an interview.
“I would really say that we are potentially at a crossroads right now as far as the practice who will participate in it, how they will participate in it (and) the history of it being a social norm.
“We’re at a tipping point.”
Depending where you go, the option to tip has some feeling pressured through tip prompts — the amount of pre-set values for tipping programmed into payment machines.
The need to tip is a “very common feeling,” Jaime Peters, the dean of finance and economics at Maryville University, told Global News.
“As we have moved from a more
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