Tipping in tough times: What to do when rising requests strain tight budgets

Customers are presented with a tip option screen at a restaurant in Toronto, on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sammy Kogan

With many Canadians facing greater financial constraints, sentiment around tipping culture is shifting.

Over the past few years, customers have seen “suggested” tipping amounts rise, and with more people paying on debit and credit machines instead of cash, they are being asked to tip more often.

Some say they are feeling annoyed at a time when they might be strapped for cash even before the bill arrives, but experts say there are ways to mitigate the issue.

“People need to do a bit of soul checking,” said Stacy Yanchuk Oleksy, CEO of Money Mentors.

“Just because someone asks for 30 per cent on the machine, it doesn’t mean that’s what it warrants; it doesn’t mean that’s what you have to do. And I think we need to get around the culture of tipping, that it’s become this guilt-laden, ‘If you don’t tip, therefore somehow that says something about you,’” she said.

“Sometimes it’s just, you can’t afford it, and that’s OK too.”

Yanchuk Oleksy said she recommends people be intentional about managing their finances and look at their budget to determine what they can afford. For example, it might make sense to pick up their own food instead of tipping for delivery.

She said consumers can also decide to tip differently than what is prescribed.

A recent H&R Block survey found 93 per cent of respondents said they were annoyed when card machines asked for tips on purchases or services that haven’t typically involved gratuities. The same amount said tipping was out of hand and is applied to goods and services they feel are unwarranted.

The survey was conducted from Feb. 19 to Feb. 23 among 1,545 Canadians who are members of the Angus Reid Forum, an online market research platform.

Kelley Keehn, CEO of Money Wise Institute, said that as consumers are being asked to tip at more places, fatigue can set in.

“We kind of moved from tipping for service, and now it’s sometimes tipping for transactions,” she said.

For sit-down meals at a restaurant, Keehn said it is best to continue to tip to support workers, but for things like counter service, it is more optional.

She said it’s also important to factor tipping into a budget, especially for larger ticket items like big family dinners out.

Wayne Smith, a professor and director at the Institute for Hospitality and Tourism Research at Toronto Metropolitan University, said that before the pandemic, it was commonplace to tip about 15 per cent in restaurants.

Today, he said, tipping norms are closer to 20 per cent in restaurants, with the increase in the tip percentage coming alongside increases in the overall price due to inflation.

“The tips are really becoming pricey and costly as a result,” he said. “There are a lot of studies starting to be done around Canada where they’re finding that people just aren’t tipping at all.”

The rise in tipping costs also comes as the gap between the rich and poor continues to widen, Smith said, which could have implications for the way Canadians interact with the service industry.

“If you want to have a real service encounter with people, it’s going to get really expensive. Otherwise, you’re going to be ordering via your phone, picking up your own stuff ... so that gap in the service model is getting wider and wider,” he said.

Overall, Smith said the practice of tipping is a personal choice, and people should tip whatever they feel comfortable with based on their experience.

Neesha Miljanovic, a senior operations manager at Waterworks Food Hall in Toronto, said that sometimes, higher tip options being displayed to customers can push people away from tipping altogether.

Instead, she said lower options can allow some businesses to potentially get more tips through volume.

As for her own tipping practices, Miljanovic said there are some rough guidelines she follows.

For a delivery or takeout experience with minimal interaction, she said she rounds up to the nearest zero and orders directly from a business instead of third-party apps. For counter service, she said she tips between 10 and 15 per cent and generally rounds up change to the nearest dollar or two for bar service.

For a restaurant setting, she said there is a range she will tip based on her experience.

“Fifteen (per cent) for me is terrible service, 18 (per cent) is ‘I’m polite, that was OK,’” Miljanovic said.

“Twenty per cent for me is standard, and then anything above that is an opinion, or a feeling of ‘You really went above and beyond to make my experience incredible here and the whole team did a great job, and I want that to be reflected financially.’”

Overall, she said it’s important for customers to remember that tipping is always voluntary, with the exception of larger groups where gratuity is added automatically.

“You don’t have to tip; the whole thing is supposed to be if you had a good service experience, that you want to give something extra to them, it is not mandatory. On every payment terminal, you can hit zero, you can hit bypass, you can do custom. So there is actually a lot of power in the guest experience to do that,” Miljanovic said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 16, 2026.

Daniel Johnson, The Canadian Press