Canada's tipping culture is a 'Wild West'

If he was speaking to a visitor or newcomer to Canada, Michael von Massow would struggle to describe our tipping culture to them.

- NINA DRAGICEVIC

Tipping fatigue is hitting consumers, as requests for gratuities increase and spread to new businesses amid the rise of automated payment machines and preset tip suggestions.

“It is a bit of a Wild West,” von Massow said. The University of Guelph food economy professor studies tipping practices and their impact on consumers.

“If someone came in here and said, ‘Mike, what happens with tipping in Canada?’ I’d be hard-pressed to give them a definitive answer to where you tip, where you don’t tip, and also how much to tip.”

It’s hard to know the rules because they are unwritten, and changing rapidly.

Some of us don’t know a tip is expected until a payment machine is handed to us and we receive a prompt. This technology is credited with both “tip-flation” and “tip creep,” von Massow said — the former references prompts for higher amounts, pressuring us to tip more; the latter means more businesses and services expect gratuity, when historically they haven’t.

This has led to tip fatigue. An Angus Reid Institute survey last year showed 83 per cent of Canadians thought too many businesses were asking for tips. Sixty-two per cent of respondents said the prompts are asking them to tip more money.

A majority of Canadians now prefer higher wages for staff instead of a tipping model, according to the survey.

Interestingly, the preference was almost identical among those that had worked gratuity-earning jobs in the past.