Where’s the Tipping Point?

The term “guilt tipping” is making the rounds in light of a rising trend in tipping culture. According to a survey of six countries by Statista Consumer Insights in 2021, this feeling of resistance to the expectation that consumers need to tip was highest in Sweden. There, more than four in ten people said that tipping should not be expected. In the United Kingdom, the share of people who thought that tipping shouldn’t be a certainty was similarly high, at 41 percent. Meanwhile, this figure dropped for those in the United States and Italy, with 22 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

“Tip fatigue”, as it's now known, appears to be growing. According to a recent report by CNBC, nearly three quarters of U.S. adults now think tipping has gotten out of control. This shift is at least partly being attributed to the multiple effects of inflation, shrinkflation and tipflation.