For many a fast-food worker, the tip conversation is a dreaded one.
For starters, it’s awkward. It’s also tough to ask for tips without making customers feel obligated. And consumers have their own set of gripes with tipping at quick-service spots.
One day at an Illinois Starbucks, a customer accidentally pressed the 5% tip option without realizing it, a Starbucks employee named Tyler told me. (Last names have been omitted from this story for privacy purposes.) The workers had no problem refunding the difference and understood that it was a mistake, but even so, the customer complained.
“They were willing to make a big scene in the store rather than just let the person have the tip,” said Tyler. “There’s always going to be people that find tipping, in any situation, just something they want to avoid.”
Sure, tipping isn’t new, and U.S. customers are long accustomed to leaving gratuity when dining out. But the protocol for tips when visiting limited-service restaurants is less clear. Some customers always leave tips for fast-food workers, while others reserve them for outstanding service or avoid them altogether.
Add in the pandemic-era practice of prompting a tip at every transaction, and it can be even more confusing. But fast-food workers say they appreciate the extra cash, even though it can make for some strange encounters.
A shift in tipping culture
A tip jar in a corner of the counter used to be all a fast-food customer was confronted with when it came to tipping.
Now, however, many POS systems have an option to add tips, even automatically calculating them for guests based on bill percentages of 15%, 20% or more. It’s becoming a more common sight at fast-food restaurants, especially since the start of the COVID pandemic, when customers were looking for ways to show extra support to workers who could be risking their health while on the clock.
Yet as time goes on, diners’ desire to show support with each restaurant interaction appears to be waning.
According to a survey from researcher Time2Play, 67% of customers who order takeout at least twice a month said they feel pressured to tip if the POS system suggests it, and 87% said this makes them uncomfortable. In addition, 45% said they wouldn’t tip for takeout if they weren’t prompted to.
Customers aren’t the only ones uneasy with the digital prompts. Some fast-food employees feel weird about them, too.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversation with a customer about tipping. Unless they’ve done it and it’s just a simple thank-you type thing, but I’ve never really had the conversation, because I don’t know, it’s kind of awkward,” said Christian, who has worked for several fast-food brands including Panera Bread and Left Coast Food + Juice.
Starbucks worker Tyler said he cracks jokes to make the situation less tense.
“It’s kind of awkward, so like the joke I do is, I go, ‘The card reader will activate now. I look away for the next question,’ and they usually laugh,” said Tyler.
He said he believes tips should be a gesture for good service, and that the POS prompts make the process more fraught.
“The reason I’m not like the biggest fan of the digital one is it kind of puts the situation before you and kind of goes like, ‘Hey, better answer the question,’” Tyler said. “Where, before, it always felt like you had earned the tips.”
Why tip?
For four years, I worked at Panera Bread, first as an associate and, later, a manager.
As an associate, I received pooled tips, which were spread among the staff depending on the hours they worked. And despite the awkward nature of the conversation, tips were something I genuinely appreciated. It gave me a few extra dollars on top of my base pay and served as a nice gesture that reminded me my work was valued.
Working in foodservice can be grueling. Long hours on your feet, cooking in a hot kitchen or smiling at customers as a line out the door demands your attention. In spite of the hard work, most fast-food workers make close to minimum wage.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the mean wage of fast-food and counter workers in 2022 was $12.26 an hour.
“I know a lot of people that are like, “I only saw you for two seconds, why would I tip you?” or “All you did was take my order, so why would I tip you?” said Christian. “Things like that, but also forgetting that this person might be standing there for like eight hours.”
Cynthia, an employee at limited-service ramen concept Noodlepig, said she earns on $6 per hour in tips, on average, bringing her hourly wage up to around $20. Without tips, she would make close to minimum wage in her state of Michigan.
Some would argue that it’s the employer’s responsibility to ensure workers are paid adequately; however, some employees prefer tips to a higher base pay because they fluctuate, giving them the potential to make more than their employer might be willing (or able) to pay them.
Christian, Tyler and Cynthia all agreed they would prefer a job with a lower pay rate plus pooled tips over a job with a higher base pay.
A boost to hiring, retention
While working in foodservice, tips are something I learned to look for when job hunting.
Tyler said he doesn’t necessarily rely on tips, but usually uses them to fill up his gas tank or when extra expenses come up. For Cynthia, they go toward saving and budgeting. “If I wasn’t making like $6 in tips on top of the $14, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal,” she said.
However, for some workers, tips have come to be expected.
“I’ll definitely say that I relied on tips,” Christian said. “I know that, hands down, any tip-paying job is probably a much higher paying job for me than a regular wage. You can get some really good fluctuation. Some people like to tip a couple dollars, but some people will really tip you well. And that can really help you.”
Christian urged customers to consider the work that goes into foodservice and the impact tips can have.
“I don’t think it’s a matter of deserving the tips or a matter of, well, that job pays them already. These things can make a significant difference in somebody’s life, especially financially,” he said. “Having that extra cash or having that extra bonus can mean a lot to somebody.”
While a server may stay at a job because of the tips, most fast-food workers would not say the same thing. In sit-down restaurants, there might be the opportunity to make more money, but the pay can vary greatly from day to day.
“With a [full-service] restaurant, it’s not very reliable, it’s not the same every single time, whereas I know if I work four times a week, six hours a day, I’m getting 24 hours with $14 an hour at least,” Cynthia said.
Having worked both at limited-service restaurants and full-service restaurants, this sentiment resonates with me. When I worked as a server, I could take home anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars in tips for an eight-hour shift to less than half that. Working at Panera provided me with a steadier paycheck, but I didn’t have to sacrifice the benefits of receiving tips, either.
When it comes to driving retention, Cynthia, and Tyler both agreed there are more important factors at play, such as coworker camaraderie and the job environment, but tips do play a role.
They can also be a successful motivator—at Panera, management would track tips daily and post a sign detailing how much in tips the team earned every day.
“Especially working in the food industry, which can be really rough sometimes, having that extra motivation to keep going is really important,” said Christian.
Marketing the pros of tip pooling
During my time at Panera, I worked every position. From taking orders to making sandwiches, I would find myself switching from station to station quite quickly. I would often ring in an order and run over to the barista station to assist with making drinks.
Cross-training is common in foodservice, and it’s also one of the reasons why tip pooling resonates with fast-food workers. They’re often being asked to work multiple positions as a team, so it makes sense that the tips are split evenly.
That, at least, is the sentiment behind Noodlepig’s tip setup, according to Cynthia, who says each and every employee, including dishwashers, receives a portion of the tip.
“Chef has this mentality of like everyone—even though I’m just like a cashier slash bobarista—I’m still also helping making the food. Everyone’s prepping, someone could be pulled off of whatever they’re doing to do dishes,” she said. “There’s a lot of cross-training that’s happening.”
She also doesn’t shy away from engaging with customers about tip pooling—she said she often explains the concept to encourage guests to consider leaving a tip, letting them know that they’re also showing thanks to the people who made the food, cleaned the bathrooms and double-checked their order to ensure it was right.
“I think it really just depends on my audience. I’m less likely to explain tip pooling to people my age, in like their 20s,” Cynthia said. “If you look like you’re in your late 20s, 30s, 40s, I’ll have a conversation with you, be like, ‘Hey, by the way, just so you know—we do tip pooling here. “