The Tipping Point: How Gratuity has Impacted Food Service Establishments

“It always makes me feel uncomfortable asking on top of what (customers are) asked to pay for them to tip me,” said Olivia Keller, a barista at Joe and Sam’s in Watkinsville, Georgia. “I wasn't necessarily serving them on a table or really cleaning up after them in any way.” 

According to the Pew Research Center, in a study done in 2023, 72% of Americans believe that tipping is expected in food service establishments more today than five years ago. 

Keller is a third-year exercise and sports science major at the University of Georgia. She has worked in restaurants before, having experience at multiple coffee shops and an ice cream parlor in her hometown. 

“I understand that waitresses and servers have a lower hourly rate, but normally, when you're going to a coffee shop, the hourly rate is somewhere between $10 and $12 [dollars],” she said. 

The average salary for a barista in the state of Georgia is $13.48 an hour, according to Indeed. Andrew Guthrie, a UGA senior studying financial planning, works at Baddies Burgers, a quick service restaurant located on South Lumpkin Street in Athens, Georgia. 

“I make about half of my income on tips, and I hate tipping culture,” said Guthrie. “If I walk into a restaurant, and all I have to do is say a few words about what food I want, hand somebody my payment, and walk back out of the restaurant, that’s where I’m going to tip that service.” 

While Keller interacts directly with customers at the front of the store making beverages, Guthrie works in the back of Baddies Burgers as a dishwasher. Even though he does not interact with patrons or serve food to guests, Guthrie says he is still able to benefit from tips that the store earns due to how the establishment distributes them. 

“Tips are split evenly with everybody, so it just depends on how many hours you worked,” he said. “It's not by shift or if you work just a big rush hour, you get the tips from that rush hour. Tips get split evenly among everybody who worked per pay period.” 

This method of tip distribution that some restaurants use is called a tip pool. It is a system that evenly splits tipped money throughout the day between all workers. Regardless of position, employees will receive an even portion of tips after the store closes. In 2023, a study by the Pew Research Center showed that only 13% of U.S. citizens believe the fairest way to distribute tips is through a tip pool. 72% believe that the server should keep all the tipped money. 

“We have baristas, we have [runners and bussers] and we have our cooks,” said Keller, when asked about Joe and Sam’s tip distribution. “Cooks don’t get any tips, but (runners and bussers) get a portion of tips. Baristas get a larger portion just because we're doing a lot more of the face-to-face interaction, but the tips are also based on the hours that you're working.” 

The customer perspective of tipping culture can influence how often they tip when going to a restaurant or paying for a service. The Pew Research Center reported that 21% of adults in America find tipping to be “more of a choice,” 29% find tipping to be “more of an obligation” and 49% find that “it depends” when wanting to tip or not. 

“I think that is where tipping is deserved,” Guthrie said, “when the restaurant is providing an over-and-beyond service and providing something extra, other than the food you were buying.”