Americans are not suddenly anti-tip, but the checkout screen has officially started doing too much. A new wave of tipping fatigue is hitting restaurants, coffee counters, delivery orders, and quick-service spots as consumers push back against digital tip prompts that make every transaction feel like a tiny moral exam.
According to a recent Popmenu’s 2026 consumer study, 78% of consumers said tipping practices at various establishments “have become ridiculous,” while 44% reported tipping less this year than last year. The study, which surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults from March 15 to March 16, also found that 59% of consumers feel compelled to tip when a digital screen asks them to, even as 42% say they are becoming more comfortable skipping gratuities in certain situations.
That is the tension. People still understand tipping when someone actually serves them. However, the pressure changes when the screen flips around at a counter and suddenly asks for 20%, 22%, or 25% before the customer has even put the straw in the cup.
Vicki Parmelee, owner of Jumby Bay Island Grill in Jupiter, Florida, told Fox News Digital that traditional restaurant tipping still makes sense when service is part of the experience.
“It’s kind of ingrained in American culture that if you go out to dinner at a restaurant, and you sit down and you’re served, I think that a 20% tip is a good tip,” she said.
However, Parmelee said the pressure feels different in lower-service situations.
“It is pretty annoying to go up to a service counter and order a coffee and then have them turn around a terminal and expect a tip just for handing you a coffee,” she told Fox News Digital.
Derek Simms, CEO of Texas-based Simms Hospitality Group, said even people inside the restaurant world feel the awkwardness.
“Even I give pause, and I’m in the restaurant business,” Simms said, calling it “a very awkward moment.”
The numbers back up that discomfort. Popmenu found that 74% of consumers have noticed restaurants raising the minimum suggested tip on digital screens, while 36% said they usually bypass the preset options and enter a custom tip instead. The same study found that pickup orders with a digital tip declined from 78% in 2022 to 62% in 2026, suggesting that customers are not just complaining. They are adjusting their behavior.
Still, this is not a clean “customers versus workers” story. The U.S. tipping system is tangled up in wages, service expectations, and restaurant economics. Under federal law, employers can pay tipped employees as little as $2.13 per hour in direct wages if tips bring the worker up to at least the federal minimum wage, and employers must make up the difference if tips fall short. Many states require higher tipped wages.
Florida, where Parmelee’s restaurant is located, has its own higher wage floor. The Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association says the state minimum wage rose to $14.00 per hour on September 30, 2025, with a required cash wage of $10.98 for eligible tipped employees after the state’s tip credit.
That is why the backlash is complicated. Consumers may hate feeling cornered by a screen, but many workers still depend on gratuities to make the job worth it. Popmenu CEO Brendan Sweeney said, “Tip-reliant professions are feeling the financial impact of tipping fatigue more than anyone.” He added that the pressure comes as customers have less disposable income because of inflated costs for food, energy, and other necessities.
Pew Research Center found the same confusion building years before this latest survey. In 2023, 72% of U.S. adults said tipping was expected in more places than it was five years earlier, but only about one-third said it was extremely or very easy to know whether or how much to tip for different services. Pew also found that 40% of Americans opposed suggested tip amounts, whether on a bill or checkout screen, while 72% opposed automatic service charges or tips on bills.
Meanwhile, Bankrate’s 2025 survey found that 63% of Americans had at least one negative view about tipping. Among those concerns, 41% said businesses should pay employees better instead of relying so much on tips, 41% said tipping culture had gotten out of control, and 38% were annoyed by pre-entered tip screens.
So the new angle is not that tipping is dead. It is that forced-feeling tipping is starting to damage the goodwill that made tipping work in the first place.
Parmelee said she makes that distinction clear to her staff.
“I tell my staff that a tip is always something that’s earned,” she said. “It’s not something they should ever expect.”
Simms warned that restaurants could risk repeat business if customers feel pushed instead of appreciated. “I don’t want to lose a customer over some weird manipulation,” he said.
Toast data shows that customers still tip more in full-service settings than quick-service ones. Full-service restaurant tips averaged 19.3% in Q3 2024, while quick-service restaurant tips averaged 15.9% in Q2 2024. Toast’s analysis points to a clear pattern: the more personal the service, the more likely guests are to tip.
In other words, the problem may not be generosity. The problem may be the setup.
“When you get good service, you want to reward that,” Parmelee said. “And even though most people will tip about 20% on average, if you have an exceptional server, an exceptional experience, sometimes they tip a little bit more.”
Now restaurants have a choice. They can keep letting the screen ask the awkward question for them, or they can protect the relationship that actually gets people to come back. Because once customers start feeling hustled at checkout, that tip prompt may cost more than it collects.
