Here are all the places stingy Gen Zers won’t tip

Change doesn’t start with them.

Only 35% of Gen Zers — defined here as being aged 18 to 26 — say they always tip at a sit-down restaurant, according to results of a Bankrate poll released last month.

And only 24% of Gen Zers always tip hairdressers, hairstylists or barbers, according to the survey, compared with 40% of millennials and 67% of Gen Xers.

Gen Zers are also less likely than baby boomers to tip when getting food delivered (31% compared to 62%) or using a taxi or ride-share service (22% versus 56%).

The only exception involves home repairs and services, for which Gen Z was most likely to always tip (15%). The likelihood decreased by generation.

Of all demographics, Gen Z and men tipped the least, the poll found.

The survey also revealed that two-thirds of Americans hold a negative view of tipping, and 1 in 3 Americans think tipping culture is out of control.

Respondents said they believe companies should pay their employees better rather than rely on tips to support them (41%). They also were annoyed by pre-entered tipping options (32%) and confused over who and how much to tip (15%), and were willing to pay more in order to eliminate tipping (16%).

Older respondents opined that tipping culture is out of hand more frequently than younger generations, with Gen Z at 22%, millennials at 27%, and Gen X and baby boomers at 33%.

It seems Americans overall are simply getting worse at tipping.

In 2019, 77% of adults said they always tip at dine-in restaurants, but that number dropped in 2021 to 75% and in 2022 to 73%.

Results show that tipping in all kinds of settings is falling, including in dine-in restaurants, hair salons, hotels, coffee shops, and taxis and ride-share vehicles. It’s also declining for food delivery and takeout.

These survey findings come on the heels of a backlash over “tipflation,” with the growth of tipping culture into coffee shops, takeout stores and self-checkouts.

Despite requiring zero interaction between customers and employees, self-checkout machines at venues like coffee shops, bakeries, airports and sports stadiums are being programmed with the option to leave the typical 20% tip.

Business owners believe that the prompt for a tip can boost staff pay and increase gratuities, according to a May report from the Wall Street Journal.

But customers are questioning where and to whom the extra cash is going, considering self-checkout is done, well, by yourself.

Many companies told the Journal these tipping prompts are completely optional, and that the extra gratuity is split between all employees, but tipping researchers claim this is a way for companies to offload the responsibility of paying employees onto customers.

The self-checkout gratuity option is an example of “tip creep” — a phenomenon that prompts customers to leave higher tips in transactional situations.

A tip prompt on a payment kiosk is viewed by many customers as a way to guilt-trip them into tipping when they typically wouldn’t.

“Just the prompt, in general, is a bit of emotional blackmail,” Garrett Bemiller, 26, who works in public relations in Manhattan, told the Journal after he was asked to add a 10% to 20% tip on his $6 water bottle at a self-checkout machine at Newark Airport.

However, experts say that tips at a self-checkout machine might never even get to an actual employee, since protections for tipped workers in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act don’t extend to machines, according to the Journal.

Lehigh University associate professor Holona Ochs told the Journal that self-checkout tipping “exploits the high adherence to tipping norms as a way to generate more revenue for the company.”

Research has shown that digital tipping options usually result in customers leaving a tip from 18% to 30% and higher, though many say they refuse to tip for fast food and self-serve.