To tip or not to tip

Zoom out: Businesses have long had tip jars. And customers have long expected to tip professionals like hairstylists, taxi drivers, bartenders and servers — all situations in which a service is rendered.

Yes, but: The pandemic changed how frequently and when customers are being asked to tip, said Julio Sevilla, an associate professor at the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia.

• The ubiquitousness of tipping comes at a time when more and more businesses are moving toward cashless transactions — meaning the option to tip is automated — and as inflation has made everything we buy way pricier than it was a few years ago.

State of play: Tipping on all sorts of transactions picked up during the pandemic and caught on as consumers — whose finances were boosted with financial stimulus or saved from not traveling — felt solidarity and sympathy for workers or small businesses, Sevilla told Axios.

Reality check: By encouraging tips, businesses can sidestep giving employees raises, Sevilla said.

• And in the complicated economic environment we're in — not enough workers, especially in service industries, and rising costs thanks to inflation — employers are eager to find ways to keep staff.

Zoom in: Brad Cunard, the owner of Little's Food Store in Cabbagetown, told Axios he doesn't make a habit of tipping when it's not expected, and his team doesn't expect customers to tip on retail purchases.

• Staff at the neighborhood market and grill aren't paid tip wages, so gratuities are "always optional," he said.
• Customers do have to tap a tipping option to complete the transaction on the store's point-of-sale system, Cunard told Axios.
• "It is there," he said. "I wish it wasn't."

We want to know: How have your tipping habits changed in recent years? Does the tip-screen give you anxiety?