TipSlice

How much to tip at restaurants

By Matt Totty, TipSlice · Last reviewed

A sit-down dinner, a coffee counter, and a bag of takeout are three different jobs. The screen that suggests 20% at all three of them is a prompt from a payment company, not a rule of etiquette. This page separates those cases, shows the dollar math on a real check, and explains the wage rules that make the U.S. restaurant range firmer than it is in most other countries.

Sit-down service

The Emily Post Institute's general tipping chart lists wait service at a sit-down restaurant as 15% to 20% of the pre-tax bill. Eighteen percent and 20% are the amounts many guests now use when the service was solid. Fifteen percent is still inside that chart. It reads as a smaller thank-you. It is not, by itself, a zero. Twenty-five percent is a choice for a long meal, a complicated order, or service that was clearly better than the usual, not a new minimum the chart requires.

Apply the percentage to the food and the drinks the server handled, including wine, cocktails, and beer. At a sit-down table you leave one tip for the meal, not a second tip for every round. The bar habit is different: the same Emily Post chart lists $1 to $2 per drink, or 15% to 20% of the tab, when you are tipping a bartender directly.

If a coupon, gift card, or comped dish lowered the printed total, tip on what the meal would have cost before that discount. The server still took the order and ran the food. Sales tax is a separate question. The Institute's finer points of tipping say it is acceptable to tip on the pre-tax amount, and the difference matters more on a large check. The pre-tax versus post-tax guide walks through the dollars and the toggle on the TipSlice calculator.

Before you pick a percentage, read the receipt for a line that says gratuity, service charge, or auto-grat. A compulsory charge is not the same thing as a tip you still owe. The large-party guide covers when restaurants add one, and why the IRS treats that line as a service charge rather than a tip.

Why the U.S. range is firm

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median of $16.94 an hour, or $35,230 a year, for waiters and waitresses in May 2025, including tips. The lowest-paid tenth earned less than $8.70. The highest-paid tenth earned more than $31.12. About 2.3 million people held the job.

Federal wage law is the other half. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, a tipped employee customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips. Department of Labor Fact Sheet #15 explains the tip credit: an employer may pay a cash wage of $2.13 an hour and count tips toward the $7.25 federal minimum, a credit of up to $5.12. Only tips the employee actually receives count. If wages plus tips miss $7.25 for the workweek, the employer makes up the difference, and it must tell the worker the cash wage, the credit, and that tips belong to the employee except for a valid pool.

State law often raises that floor, and the employer follows the rule that protects the worker more. The Department of Labor's tipped-wage table dated July 1, 2026 lists Alaska, California, Guam, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington as requiring the full state cash minimum before tips. Montana's full-rate line on that table applies to businesses with gross annual sales over $110,000, and Oregon's rate varies by region. Twenty percent is etiquette, not a statute. The travel guide shows where a printed service charge replaces it.

Counter service and coffee

The Emily Post chart treats a tip jar as no obligation, and says to tip occasionally if the barista provides a little something extra or if you are a regular. It does not set a percent for a counter. The October 2, 2025 note says you can leave change, a dollar or more, or nothing, and that you do not have to tip when you see a jar. In the Bureau of Labor Statistics profile for food and beverage serving workers, the May 2024 median hourly wage for fast food and counter workers was $14.65.

Tip screens

Pew's November 9, 2023 chapter says point-of-sale tablets, apps, and digital kiosks have made it easier for a business to show tip prompts. Four in ten U.S. adults strongly or somewhat oppose suggested tips, whether the suggestions are on a bill or on a screen at checkout. Twenty-four percent strongly or somewhat favor them, and 32% neither oppose nor favor them.

The same report's service chapter asked people who use each service whether they always or often tip. A quarter of those who buy coffee or another drink at a coffee shop said yes. Twelve percent of those who dine at a fast casual restaurant with no server said yes. A suggested button on the tablet does not change those answers into a required percent.

Takeout

The Emily Post chart says there is no obligation for ordinary takeout, and lists 10% for extra service such as curb delivery, or for a large, complicated order. Bagging a sandwich is real work. It is not an hour of table service. Ten percent of a $46 family order is $4.60. Ten percent of a $12 sandwich is $1.20, and leaving nothing on that sandwich is inside the chart.

If the receipt already has a packaging fee, a service charge, or a "kitchen appreciation" line, read the words before you add 10% on top. A fee the restaurant set is not automatically the staff tip. Ask if the wording is unclear. Delivery is a separate case. The delivery guide quotes the Emily Post chart and the DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Instacart pages on which fees are the tip.

Buffets and bars

Buffet wait service is 10% of the pre-tax bill on the Emily Post chart. You plated your own food, and someone still cleared dishes, refilled drinks, and restocked the line. If you walked a cafeteria line and bussed your own tray, a tip is optional. Some buffets print a service charge. Find that line before you add another 10%.

At a bar, $1 to $2 a drink is the cash habit, and 15% to 20% of the pre-tax tab is the chart's other option. Tip on the pre-comp price if a round was comped. When everyone pays their own, use the bill-splitting guide instead of one open tab.

When the service was poor

Separate what the server controlled from what they did not. A 40-minute ticket is usually the kitchen. An empty water glass after you asked twice is the server. In an AARP interview, the Emily Post Institute's guidance is that a full-service tip is still expected when you are unhappy, and that saying so does more than leaving nothing. A blank line is easy to read as a forgotten tip. Ten or 15 percent, plus a specific word to a manager, is clearer than zero. You do not owe 20% for rude service. If the problem is the food, say so while you are there, and keep a comped dish in the tip base.

Worked examples

Sit-down, two people, 20%

Food and drinks $86.40, before tax. Twenty percent is $17.28. The bill plus tip is $103.68. Each person owes $51.84. The link opens the TipSlice calculator with those figures filled in.

Open the $86.40 example

Takeout, one person, 10%

A $46 packed order. Ten percent is $4.60. The total with that tip is $50.60. Use this when the order was large or someone ran it to the curb. For a simple $12 pickup, the etiquette chart does not require a percentage at all.

Open the $46 takeout example

To see 15%, 18%, 20%, and 25% on the same subtotal before you commit, use the tip percentage table. To divide a check that does not split into clean cents, use the bill splitter on this same example. The tipping-by-service table puts restaurants next to salons, delivery, and hotels.

This is general information for a personal decision, written by Matt Totty for TipSlice. It is not tax, wage, or legal advice. House policies and local rates change. Check the receipt, and read the source pages linked below if you need the official wording.

Sources

More from TipSlice

All of the guides are listed on the guides hub. Servers who want the rules on tip-out and tip pools can read tip-out and tip pooling. The math on this page runs in your browser on the tip calculator.