Is there a “tip creep” phenomenon happening in U.S. restaurants?

A recent university study suggested that 25 percent is “the new 20 percent.” But if tip creep is real, is it holding true in the Miami Valley? We talked to locals who, by and large, don’t think tip percentage is rising here. The few who do think it’s rising say it’s still not over 20 percent.

In a study by Michael Lynn, Cornell University professor of consumer behavior, he analyzed 9,000 credit card receipts from a restaurant in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and determined that more than a third of customers there left tips greater than 20 percent.

Here, most servers said their tips average between 15 and 18 percent of the bill, and if anything, tip percentages have swung slightly downward in recent years due to the poorer economy.

Here are some specifics we heard from local servers, restaurant owners and eaters.

Clientele

Age, income level, time of day and other considerations can all affect how much customers tip, many servers noted.

If tip creep is happening, Holly Wilmarth, a server at Pasha Grill in The Greene, Beavercreek, believes it’s among “older people who are more financially secure.” When teens dine there for homecoming or the prom, “we have to put a gratuity on the bill or they won’t tip at all sometimes.”

Wilmarth estimates the dinner crowd tips around 18 percent at her restaurant and the lunch crowd a little less.

Regular customers also tend to tip better, some servers said. Kathleen Ruppert, director of training for Tavern Restaurant Group, the parent company of The Pub in The Greene, said that The Pub has a good regular clientele driving business. Regulars often ask for certain servers and give them high tips, she said.

The income demographic the restaurant attracts can affect tip percentages, too. Ruppert said the full-service restaurants in her company usually generate higher tip percentages than The Pub does.

On the other hand, Ruppert said that because of the present economy, “people have traded down. If they used to go to fine-dining restaurants, now they go to upscale casual. If they used to go to upscale casual, now they go to mid-casual.” So fin- dining establishments might be taking a hit not on tip percentage but on number of customers.

The economy

Philip Smith, who has worked as a server at McCormick and Schmick’s in The Greene since it opened five years ago, says that while tip percentage appears to have remained constant (he estimates it’s around 18 percent at his restaurant), bill totals are lower because people are ordering lower-end menu items now.

Amy Zahora, executive director of the Miami Valley Restaurant Association, added that diners in this economy often use coupons, but some diners then tip only on the amount they pay after the coupon amount is deducted. That’s a no-no in the food service business. So is dining with a gift card and then leaving no tip at all, she said.

Toni Darrach, a server and bartender at Brio, also in The Greene, has a degree in hospitality management and has worked her whole career in restaurants. She believes tip percentages rise and fall a bit with every shift in the economy.

“When the economy goes up or down, our income does, too.”

Pay problems

Jarrod Clabaugh, director of communications for the Ohio Restaurant Association, estimates that across Ohio, tips run between 10 and 20 percent. He guesses that if tip percentages are creeping upward, it’s happening in larger cities.

Zahora doesn’t have firm data either, but she believes from anecdotal evidence that tips in Miami Valley restaurants average between 15 and 18 percent.

“I always tip 20 percent because I used to wait tables. It’s one job that everybody should have once,” she said, adding she sometimes got stiffed — and that was when servers’ minimum wage was only $2.07 per hour.

Not that it’s exponentially higher now. Clabaugh said minimum wage for tipped workers is $3.85 in Ohio; on Jan. 1, it will increase to $3.93.

Thus, Ashley Paul, assistant manager at The Pub, noted the actual minimum-wage portion of servers’ checks can end up going straight to taxes.

“You might get a 60-cent paycheck” after the taxes are taken out, said Allison Husko, a server at The Pub.

Paul said that many diners also don’t realize that when they order alcohol, bartenders get five percent of the tip. Husko explained that diners sometimes run up a $30 bar tab but then don’t tip on it, leaving the food tip to be split between the server and bartender.

Ashley Jones, a server at Brio, said that some people come in just for coffee and then leave a $1 tip. But from a server’s perspective, that’s still a seat that’s occupied for a certain amount of time, and the server needs to make more on that service.

“A lot of people who have worked in the food-service industry tend to tip fairly high,” said Margaret Mattox, owner of Seasons Bistro and Grille in Springfield, “knowing that servers’ income is pretty much dependent on tips.” She estimates diners at her restaurant tip an average of 15 to 20 percent.