Tip fatigue? Yep! It's exhausting. (Imagine how exhausting it is to rely on tips.)

Ah, the good old days when tipping was pretty straightforward and you knew the rules. Fifteen percent in a restaurant. Twenty percent if the service was extraordinary. Twenty percent for a cabbie. A buck (or two) per night for the maids in a hotel. Whatever you give your mailman. (And mine have always been male.) Whatever you give your hairdresser. (I tip a high percentage, pretty much still tipping the same amount, even though, having gone covid-gray, I no longer get my hair colored.) And tips for anyone delivering furniture or the guy who does the semi-annual HVAC service.

As someone who, in her youth, worked as a waitress and relied on tips, I've long been a reasonably good tipper with an up close and personal understanding that tips matter.

When I had my first tip job - summer of 1968, waitressing at Ted's Big Boy in Worcester - I loved getting tips. Every night (or afternoon - depended on what shift I worked) when I got home from Big Boy's, I emptied the pockets of my orange cotton apron on the kitchen table and counted the day's take  - which was largely made up on change. I recorded the results in a little red spiral notebook,

Big Boy's had a very modestly priced joint. 

Here's a menu from the Bob's - the Big Boy's mothership - from roughly the same era. Nothing fancy. 

Some days, I didn't bring home $10. A great day was $20+. My biggest tip was always the one I got from my father when, every once in a while, the family - my parents and the younger kids - came in for Sunday breakfast and sat on my station. 

I have no idea why I kept track of the tips. It's not like I reported them on my taxes. 

But I liked the fact that I was making more than enough to make up for the fact that I was being paid less than minimum wage, even for those hours of downtime when there was no one to wait on and we were required to do cleaning.

Later on in my waitressing career, tips let me and my roommate spend a couple of months camping cross country, and five months trekking around Europe.

So even though my tip-earning experience is way in the way back, I'm sympathetic to those who make tips.

These days, I tip at least 20% in a restaurant. My hotel maid tip has been upped to five bucks a night. And I tip Uber drivers a lot - anywhere from 25% to 100%. 

And I tip the pizza folks, and the takeout folks, and the ice cream scoopers, always throwing a few bucks into the tip jar, or - in the case of my pizza local - adding it to the bill when I order online. Mostly if I'm doing takeout, I'm picking up, but once in a while I have delivery. So of course I give them $10 for their trouble. 

But I do wonder when and how what was a nice-to-do - throw a buck or two into the tip jar for the college kids at the ice cream joint - has become an expectation, with suggestions of up to 25% or more for someone who hasn't done all that much, waiting-on-you-wise.

My wondering doesn't stop me from tipping. 

I don't do a ton of fast fooding or ice cream parloring, but I certainly don't begrudge a few dollars to workers who are largely immigrants or students. But I may be in a minority, as "tip fatigue" has set in.

Fewer consumers now say they “always” tip when dining out compared with last year, according to a new report by Bankrate, or for other services, such as ride-shares, haircuts, food delivery, housekeeping and home repairs.

“Inflation and general economic unease seem to be making Americans stingier with their tipping habits, yet we’re confronted with more invitations to tip than ever,” said Ted Rossman, Bankrate’s senior industry analyst.

Many feel the pressure to tip has increased over the last year, NerdWallet’s consumer budgeting report also found.

However, two-thirds of Americans have a negative view about tipping, according to Bankrate, particularly when it comes to contactless and digital payment prompts with pre-determined options that can range between 15% and 35% for each transaction.

“Now you have to go out of your way to not tip and that’s what a lot of people resent,” Rossman said. (Source: CNBC)

I understand that resentment. When I see 35% suggested for the pizza, it always strikes me as high - and a big nervy - even if, I were tipping in cash at the pizza place (my most regular take out place, where the immigrant workers are pleasant and hardworking), it would be 35% half the time. 

The good news for waitstaff at sit-down restaurants is that folks are still tipping here. But for "quick-service" restaurants, only about one-sixth of customers tip.

I get that "tip fatigue" has set in, and that "tip creep" has tipping showing up all over the place. Where next? Grocery store checkout? 

And I also get that even if the minimum wage is going up - in Massachusetts, it's $14.25 for non-tipped workers - no one's getting rich working at Dunkin Donuts. Around here, the workers in places like Dunks are mostly immigrants, putting in long hours to support their families. If we can make their lives marginally easier by tossing a few bucks in the tip jar, I'm all for it.

If we're finding "tip fatigue" exhausting, imagine how exhausting it must be to rely on tips to make ends meet. 

But couldn't we just start paying people working 40+ hours a week enough to live on to begin with? 

Now there's a thought...