Exploring the Determinants of Tipping: A Case Study of a Chain Restaurant in New York

Abstract

Abstract Tipping in restaurants has for a long time been considered a norm and a way of appreciation for the service offered. However, tipping itself is considered arbitrary and even unfair as the basis for tipping is often not clearly defined. In this paper, I conduct a study at Chili’s restaurant in New York with 20 full-time wait staff over a period of 16 weeks from May 2019 to the end of July 2019 by using data collected from surveys prompted by payment kiosks. The study uses an OLS regression to examine whether the following variables were associated with greater tip amounts per hour and per guest: the gender of the server, the attentiveness score the server received, the servers’ years of experience, and the number of problems customers indicated with their dining experience. The preliminary results in this study indicate that the greater server experience (as measured by the length of time employed as a server at Chili’s) is positively and significantly correlated with greater tip amounts. Attentiveness, customer problems, and the gender of the server were found to be not significant.