How Much to Tip in Any Situation [CHART]

Those that work in the service industry know how important tips are to their earnings. In many places, not tipping a server can mean they are practically working for free. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, most employers are only required to pay servers $2.13 an hour; the rest they must make in tips. Sounds like servers may really get the short end of the stick here.

Most of us stick to the 15%-20% rule when the opportunity to tip comes up, but those who don’t consider how hard it is to work as a server aren’t as generous. Even if you get bad service, you’d be a bigger person to confront the manager rather than leave a small tip or nothing at all. To help guide you when it comes to tipping, Tim Urban of  Wait But Why endeavored to create this chart on what the tipping norms are for every service industry and how much you should give without coming off as a stingy jerk.

Urban asked over one hundred service workers from waiters, bartenders, barbers, doormen, and valets in New York City about their experiences in tipping and compared his findings with his site’s readers and other tipping experts. Take a look at the chart below and the next time you tip a server, exercise your generosity- at least it’s good karma.