States where people give the biggest tips

The topic of tipping at food establishments remains a hot debate. 

It can get particularly heated when it comes to when and how much customers should tip, whether it’s a full-service or quick-service restaurant. 

A SpotOn survey published in May indicated the tipping expectations of restaurant industry workers varied, with more than one-third of respondents reporting 15% tips were the “minimum percentage” they expected “based on service.” About 28% expected patrons to give them 14%, while 11% looked for 20% and 8% wanted 18%, it found.

And this month, data from Toast’s “Q2 2024 Restaurant Trends Report” about the typical tipping percentages across the U.S. may offer even more food for thought when it comes to the practice.

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The five states where people tended to leave the biggest tips for restaurants all had average tipping percentages above 20%, according to the company.

Toast used data from only tips paid for with card and digital at restaurants that use its technology to create its rankings. The payments spanned April 1 to the end of June, it said.

Restaurant customers in Delaware gave tips of 21.5% on average in the second quarter, according to Toast. That percentage earned the aptly nicknamed “First State” the No. 1 spot for biggest tips for the second quarter in a row.

The average for restaurant tips in West Virginia was just 1 percentage point lower than Delaware’s, coming in at 20.5%, the data showed.

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In general, Hoosiers tipped 20.4% of their order, Toast reported. The average in the state was slightly higher when it came specifically to full-service restaurant tipping. 

New Hampshire placed No. 4 with total tips of 20.4% on average, the same percentage as Indiana.

The Bluegrass State rounded out the top five for average heftiest tipping, Toast said. Overall, tipping was 20.3%.

Meanwhile, Toast found California, Washington, Nevada, Florida and Louisiana were among the states with the smallest average tipping percentages in the second quarter. The lowest, 17.3%, belonged to the Golden State.

Toast’s rankings for the “best and worst states for tipping” accompanied its findings that 18.8% represented the overall U.S. tipping average for restaurants in the second quarter. In the first quarter, it was 18.9%.

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Similar to overall tips, tipping at full-service and quick-service restaurants shed one-tenth of a percentage point quarter over quarter. The average for the full-service establishments came in at 19.3%, while Toast pegged it at 15.9% for the quick-service spots.

Toast’s report included other data on the restaurant industry, such as what food types quick-service restaurant customers favored at lunchtime and same-sales trends.