‘People would leave the industry’: Maritimers still in favour of tipping culture

A new survey reveals more than half of Canadians have reached their tipping point when it comes to tipping culture.

According to a new study by H&R Block, about 67 per cent of Canadians said they would be fine with getting rid of tipping for good.

“Just because you’re doing your job doesn’t mean you need to be tipped for doing your job,” said one person who spoke with CTV News about the issue.

“Even for bare minimum of service, they’re expecting like 18 or 20 per cent,” added another.

In Sydney, N.S., even a 33-year veteran of the restaurant industry feels that ‘tip creeping’ has gotten a bit out of hand.

“Absolutely, because everywhere we tip now”, said Ardon Mofford, owner and head chef at Governor’s Pub & Eatery. “Like, I go to Tim Horton’s and I go through a drive-thru and I get one cup of coffee for two dollars.”

The survey found that 89 per cent of Canadians have come to resent businesses with tip prompts and think they are not warranted. While 41 per cent avoid going to places they know have tip prompts at cash out.

“I think that kind of forces people to tip,” Mofford said. “I’m not a big fan of that.”

“What we’ve also seen is more and more businesses having that tipping option, and that’s where that fatigue is coming,” added Natasha Chestnut, executive director of the Restaurants Association of Nova Scotia.

Chestnut said most Nova Scotians still seem happy to leave a tip when dining out, adding that around here it might even be considered part of East Coast hospitality.

She said that while prompting largely started during the COVID-19 pandemic to help workers out, she feels its presence at so many places other than restaurants is causing a lot of that tip fatigue reflected in the survey numbers.

“That’s skewing that data because people are being prompted to tip where they’ve never been prompted before.”

Mofford said their pin pad prompts include an option of ‘no tip’, with the hope that customers don’t feel awkward or obligated. However, he said if everyone were to stop tipping, his business would suffer.

“People would leave the industry,” Mofford said. “One of the hardest things right now is getting people to work in our industry, so if you took tips away you would lose some really good servers.”

“Even though we feel annoyed by this question for the tip on the machine, 57 per cent of us, more than half of us, will give a tip anyway,” said Yannick Lemay, a spokesperson for H & R Block.