A recent poll conducted by BC-based Research Co. found that the majority of British Columbians tip their server while dining out, but most dislike being given suggested tip options.
The poll asked BC residents in what scenarios they typically leave a tip for their server.
At a sit-down restaurant, 80% of British Columbians tip all, or most of the time and 62% said they tip all, or most of the time at a bar.
However, some types of service industry businesses did not fare so well. According to the poll, 61% of BC respondents said they never tip at fast-food restaurants, 38% said they never tip at a coffee shop, 37% never tip at restaurants they are grabbing food to-go from and 47% said they never tip at a buffet-style restaurant.
When asked what a decent tip to leave is at a sit-down restaurant specifically, it turns out that it really depends on the scenario—how busy the restaurant/server is, and how good the service is.
If the service is exceptional and the restaurant is really busy, the majority of British Columbians, 30%, said they would leave 20-25% as a tip. However, people are less likely to tip if the restaurant is not busy, but their service is still exceptional, with the majority, 35%, saying they would tip between 15-19%.
For service that is just good, but not great, in a busy environment, 38% said they would tip between 15-19%. If the restaurant is not busy, then the majority, 35%, are only leaving a tip between 10-14%.
And finally, if the service is not good, but the restaurant is clearly understaffed, then the majority of BC respondents, 34%, said they would leave a tip between 10-14%. If the service was bad and the restaurant was not busy, 30% said they would leave nothing, 26% said they would leave between 1-9% and 30% said they would still leave between 10-14%.
Notably, in all criteria of how service was and how busy the eatery was, no less than 6% said they would leave nothing regardless.
Those who work service industry jobs, be it at a bar, a sit-down restaurant, a coffee shop, or elsewhere, typically make minimum wage in BC.
However, the way a tip out structure works at many restaurants is that the server will end up losing money if someone chooses not to tip.
This is because some restaurants require servers to tip-out a certain percentage of their total sales to support staff, like bussers, hosts and kitchen staff. So, if someone doesn’t tip, the server then has to pay out of pocket to tip-out those roles.
Though there has been talk of removing tipping from service jobs through the years, and more service jobs than ever are prompting customers to tip, nothing is likely to change unless the system changes from the top down—businesses pay their employees a living wage, increasing prices to make up for it and customers being okay with those changes.
