A national debate around tipping etiquette appears to be raging, leading to one big question: How much should you tip, anyway?
It comes as more businesses are asking customers to tip at cash registers and even at self-checkout stations. Some restaurants— like Denver’s Casa Bonita, owned by the creators of South Park — are doing away with tips altogether.
And then there are tips for food delivery. The disconnect between what delivery drivers expect and what customers are tipping has led to confrontations: DoorDash fired one of its drivers after he cursed at a woman for tipping $5 on a $20 order.
At the time, DoorDash said that it’s OK for a driver to “respectfully” ask for a tip — but that abusing a customer isn’t OK. “Our rules exist to help ensure everyone who uses our platform — Dashers, customers, merchants — have a safe and enjoyable experience,” a spokesperson previously told Insider.
But what’s “enjoyable” for a customer could be at odds with what’s enjoyable for a driver. So we set out to ask 10 delivery people across New York City: What do they think is a reasonable tip?
We used DoorDash to order a breakfast sandwich and an iced coffee from Starbucks. The total came to $14.65 with tax and service fees. We tipped $2.50 — or 17% — then asked the driver what he thought. “Good,” he said, because it was a “small order.” He said people should tip based on the size of the order. In other words, if you’re ordering dinner for 10 — with all those accompanying boxes and bags — then you should tip more, he said.
For context, this Starbucks was about 400 feet from our office in downtown Manhattan — or a two-minute walk, according to Google Maps.
We placed a second Starbucks order for an egg wrap and an iced matcha drink. The total came to $17.43. We added a $2.50 tip — a little more than 14%. This time, the driver was disappointed. He said he would have liked to have seen a $5 or even $6 tip. That’d be 30% to 34% of the total.
For their part, DoorDash, UberEats, and Grubhub didn’t respond to requests for comment on what customers should tip. In a blog post from 2019, Grubhub suggested customers tip 20% — and consider adding more if it’s an extra-big order, or if there’s bad weather.
Alberto Mendes, a driver who’s been delivering for Grubhub and DoorDash for the past seven years, told Insider: “When you order delivery, it’s a commodity. You’re not going out, it comes to you. I’m the one that goes through 90-degree weather, going up and down a walk-up, signing into a building — all of that is time for me.”
The general consensus among the 10 delivery workers Insider talked to was that a reasonable tip falls somewhere between 15% to 20% of the total bill — and that percentage should be calculated on the grand total that includes taxes and fees, they contended.
“It depends on how big your order is — good tips are at least 15%,” said a DoorDasher who declined to share his name.
That means the woman who tipped $5 on her $20 DoorDash order — which is a 25% gratuity — actually gave quite a good tip, drivers said.
“A $5 tip on a $20 order? That’s not bad at all. I mean nowadays, a $5 tip is good,” said Olam, a delivery worker for both Instacart and Grubhub who didn’t want to give his last name.
Still, the “vibecession” that’s set in across the country — exacerbated by rising prices and concerns about a looming recession — means customers are ordering — and thereby tipping — less than they were in the freewheeling days of the pandemic. As a result, delivery drivers said they’ve shifted their expectations around what constitutes a good tip.
“In Covid, you might get $10 on the same order” for which a customer might tip $5 today, Olam said.
The biggest tips he’s gotten recently? “I would say $20, on a $60 or $70 order,” Mendes said, chuckling. That’s around 28% to 33%. “But before, I used to get $80 on a $60 order,” he said, recalling a 133% tip from during the height of the pandemic. “You have to understand Covid was a different story because you were risking your life pretty much,” he said.
These day’s, it’s the meager tips that stick in the mind of some delivery workers: One Grubhub driver who declined to give his name said he got a $5 tip on a $1,000 delivery a few months ago. “It was so heavy,” he said of all the bags.
Still, even that beats receiving nothing.
“Sometimes it can be a $100 order and you’ll get zero,” said Juan, a delivery worker who didn’t want to give his last name who said he’s been working with Grubhub for seven years. “Every 10 orders, two will give you nothing.”
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