One in three people can’t afford to tip service workers

One in three people in the UK said they can’t afford to tip in restaurants, according to data from digital payments provider Take Payments.

From a survey of 2000 people, Take Payments found that 36% of people will always leave a tip with 15% of people saying they have had to reduce the amount they tip following the pandemic.

Over a third of the people surveyed said that they never tip as they “don’t believe it is necessary as the service has already been paid for”.

Over 60% of people said that they would not tip if they were unhappy with the service whilst 60% of people said that they would tip if the service was good.

One third of people said that as businesses move more towards card payments they were less likely to leave a tip as they were not sure the money went to the right person.

The most generous city for tipping was Glasgow where 55% of people stated that they always left a tip. Edinburgh was a close second with 51% of people saying they always leave a tip.

The next three cities which tip the most were all northern cities; Liverpool, Sheffield and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, showing a north-south divide.

Hospitality workers were the most likely profession to be tipped with takeaway drivers coming in at third.