Racial Differences in Restaurant Tipping

Abstract

Restaurant servers have the impression that black Americans do not tip as well as white Americans do—a perception that causes negative attitudes and actions on the servers’ part. A convenience survey of ninety-nine servers in twenty restaurants (in Maryland and Florida) lends credence to that general impression. Using 15 percent as the benchmark for a “good” tip, three-quarters of the servers stated that their black customers routinely tipped below 15 percent, while only one server said that white customers usually tipped less than 15 percent. In general, the servers’ race did not affect their responses about tip levels. In a second survey, two servers in Florida recorded their tips for a total of 151 parties over a two-week period. According to their records, nearly half of the entirely black parties tipped below15 percent, and the mean tip for all black parties was 14.29 percent. For parties composed entirely of whites, one-fifth tipped less than 15 percent, while the mean tip for all white parties was 17.27 percent.