Tipping: How Not to Tip, When to Tip + How Much to Tip

How did tipping get so confusing? The Cut, a New York magazine, recently published new guidelines for tipping and suggested a 20% gratuity, regardless of the level of service you received. Really, no Really!

The expansion of point-of-sale technology that prompts customers to tip at coffee shops and convenience stores has dramatically changed the way we perceive and engage with tipping. Should you now tip for a pack of gum or bottled water in situations where human interaction is minimal or non-existent? And just as tipping has gotten more confusing and uncomfortable, our tipping choices are prominently displayed on large swivel screens that invite others to scrutinize and judge.

To help Jason and Peter navigate and understand the new rules of tipping, they invited Michael Lynn, a professor of consumer behavior and marketing at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration to join them. He has been studying why and how Americans tip for decades.

Their Discussion Includes:

• Why efforts to move away from tipping in America always fail.
• Many people feel the tipping culture has become, “out of control”.
• Is a 25% restaurant tip the new 20%?
• Hatred of the swivel screen.
• Why raising menu prices and removing tips doesn’t work.
• New guidelines that perpetuate an already convoluted and often arbitrary tipping culture.
• Guilt Tipping and the atmosphere of obligation.
• Generational differences in tipping.
• Specific examples to help guide your tipping decisions.
• When it’s okay not to tip!

Michael Lynn is a nationally recognized expert on tipping who has written over 70 research publications on this topic. His work on tipping has been covered by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the International Herald Tribune, the Economist, and Forbes as well as by ABC's 20/20, BET's Nightly News, and NPR.

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