I’m an American who lives in the UK, so I think about tipping kind of a lot. In America, tipping is pretty common practice. I expect to tip in most situations. In Europe, this is considerably less so.

But, I have noticed an interesting shift here. With everything being automated, most of the tap payment systems are set to ask you if you want to tip as a default.

And I often think, wtf? These are positions that don’t even require tipping in the States. But I feel like a miser every time I put 0% or no tip on something like picking up my own takeout or even places like buying clothing.

The request feels absurd and I get irrationally angry the silly computer is even asking me for a tip. Are these tips even going to the workers if you did decide that the cashier at H&M is worth a tip? And this isn’t crazy apparently only 25% of people tip on coffee and 12% tip on buying fast food.

This seems to speak to the ‘tipflation’ I was just reading about in this article from Pew Research, indicating that in the States, there is increasingly a higher expectation for tipping. And below we’ll dig into some of the interesting stats from that research.

Which is sketchy friends, why aren’t businesses just paying their workers properly? Why are they putting this arbitrary extra cost on you and also denying their workers the security of knowing what to expect in terms of payment? Also, tipping was always supposed to be about the quality of the service, not us subsidizing garbage pay. It was meant to reward really good work.

I get that it isn’t anymore and that it is a crucial element of people’s pay, and I do tip in most circumstances (I did work in the restaurant industry through high school and college), but I just want to moan about my disillusionment for a moment here

But anyways. The point of the article is that folks don’t seem to know what to do anymore about this tipflation. We expect it but, like, how much do you tip the clothing store cashier?

2/3 of Americans say it’s difficult to know who much and when to tip and 72% of Americans say that tipping is required in more places that it was five years ago.

It also turns out I’m not the only one a little salty about these automated tip requests on the digital tills. 40% of Americans oppose these automated tip requests.

Apparently, we are learning to breeze past these requests though, and this makes me wonder a little if in the long run the impact will be negative even on jobs where we usually would tip. Without the social pressure to do so, will we?

At least doing a little research after coming across that Pew Research article has taught me that I’m not alone in my dismay over the endless requests for tips from automated kiosks and unexpected places were service was minimal, if at all.

It reminds me a little of the rounding up so a company can donate to a charity scam which really just results in them getting a tax deduction on your charity contribution.

So what are your thoughts? Am I over reacting when these silly digital screens ask me for a tip as I self-serve myself a sandwich from a convenience store fridge?