Tipping.  In Montana, if you're a bartender or waiter, it's a major part of your income because servers generally make the lowest wage allowable by law.  In order to survive, these workers rely heavily on tips.

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Then the pandemic happened, and society amped up tipping in order to help out other humans and feel like they were doing something meaningful in a time where we all felt so helpless.

Since the pandemic, there's a trend in America called "Tipping Fatigue".  I imagine, you've experienced it yourself and not even realized it.  Tipping fatigue is

the tiredness consumers feel about being prompted to tip workers, such as servers, bartenders, instructors, nannies, baristas, and food deliverers. The term gained prominence in January 2023 as inflation made it more difficult for consumers to afford tips on top of rising prices.

It stems from the I-pad type payments being made and tips being asked for at untraditional places, mortgage companies, fast food restaurants, gas stations, anywhere that didn't used to have a tip jar available.  A lot of times, when it's electronic, the person is watching to see what you tip or if you tip at all, most of the time before the service even happens.  I'm a tipper, and I've found myself shocked by the places that expect me to add a gratuity lately.  "Thanks for ringing up my order, but dude, that's literally all you did."

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In Montana and all over America, servers are feeling the pinch of inflation and tip fatigue by seeing smaller tips from consumers.

In Montana, we're still leading the generous tipping game.  From KULR 8, the average restaurant tip is 20.9% and the average "other" tip is at 17.3%.

I worked for mostly tips for a couple of years, and it's possible to make a dang good wage.  However, the income is unpredictable due to the nature of tipping, it's all on the generosity of the customer.  I had nights I'd pull in up to $600 in tips (believe me when I say that was hustling.) and one infamous night in my bartending career where I went home with $1 in tips.  As generous as Montanans are, it's still a crap shoot to see if you'll make your bills no matter how hard you hustle.

My thoughts are that I will continue to tip waiters, bartenders, baristas, hairdressers, nail people and the like.  But, no, I'm not tipping the guy at the shop who rings up everything I bring to the counter.  I really am over those kind of tipping requests.

Are you feeling tip fatigue?  Have your wages gone down due to people tipping less?  Hit me up here.

New Tipping Guidelines

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