Survey Reveals The Biggest Reason People Would Skip Tipping Their Waiter

Dining out can be a remarkable experience, especially when you're hoping to be a bit pampered while eating out on a special occasion. You want to savor the food, a lovely ambiance, and of course, fantastic service at the restaurant. A great server can be an integral part of your meal and can help you out while choosing what to order from the menu, making sure that you are comfortable with the setup. They can also assist if you need add-ons or aren't happy with your meal and need something to be changed.

Of course, for servers, one of their sources of income often comes from the tips they receive on the job. As pointed out by The Chicago Tribune, many servers in the U.S. still need tips to get by because their overall salaries aren't adequate to cover their everyday living expenses. Here's an important question: what influences guests when they're trying to figure out whether they should tip their server? Well, Mashed conducted a survey to get to the bottom of the issue.

The Mashed survey included 655 participants who were asked to identify the main reason they would skip a tip. For a plurality of the respondents (48.55 percent), the reason for avoiding a tip was rather straightforward: experiencing rude service from their waiters. Another big one that upsets customers? Unsanitary behavior – 14.81 percent of the respondents chose that option. The next two choices were pretty close to each other, as 7.94 participants said that slow service was a huge turn-off for them while 6.87 percent said that they would avoid leaving behind a tip if they received the wrong order. 

Meanwhile, there were those who felt that skipping tipping is simply out of the question: 21.83 percent of the participants said that they always make it a point to leave behind a tip. For some customers, there may be a high bar to forgo giving a tip. One person shared that kind of sentiment in a Reddit thread. They wrote that they always make sure to tip in the U.S. but also indicated there could be exceptions: "I guess if the service were atrocious I wouldn't tip, but I would have a serious discussion with the other people at my table first."