How much tip did the café’s iPad prompt you the last time you went for a simple black coffee, with no bells and whistles: 18, 20, 25%?
A recent Pop Menu study found that tipping culture is on the decline nationwide. Meanwhile, community members in Bend appear to be feeling the pressure to tip more for services that they feel do not warrant a tip. Based on data from 2024, the reported tip fatigue seems to have many potential causes, including being asked for tips when not getting table service, thinking it’s a cultural relic from COVID-19 days, inflation versus cost of living and more.
“I feel pressured that it’s expected I tip,” Bend resident Linda Fasan told the Source as she was walking into a boba tea shop. “It’s challenging when you’re not necessarily getting a service that would be above and beyond where you are showing up and driving yourself to pick something up versus when somebody is serving you.”
“Sometimes it’s just unwarranted. I don’t feel bad for not tipping.”
Jack tsuruda
Fasan said although she’s sensitive to the idea that some workers rely on tips, she believes the steep tip culture in coffee shops, auto shops and at self-checkout machines has been a remnant from COVID-19 days.
“It just never switched back,” Fasan says.
The study found that with the rising costs associated with inflation, consumers have been more mindful about how much and when they tip. On average, consumers say they have been asked to tip 40 times when they felt it wasn’t appropriate.
Within the past week, Fasan told the Source she was prompted around eight to 10 times when she felt she shouldn’t have been.
“Sometimes it’s just unwarranted. I don’t feel bad for not tipping,” local Jack Tsuruda told the Source. “It’s all circumstantial for me. I feel like when that first started happening, I felt obliged to tip.”
Tsuruda says he only tips when he receives table service or when he orders delivery.
The study further found consumers tipping 20% or more has declined, while those tipping 10% or less has increased. In 2022, 43% of consumers tipped 20% or more. That number decreased to 38% in 2024.
In 2024, 30% of consumers tipped 10% or less. This number was a, 11% increase from 2022.
This year, the inflation rate increased from 2.4% in February to 3.3% in March. The inflation forecast is estimated to teeter around 2.5% in 2027 and 2.3% in 2028.
These numbers do not suggest prices are going down; they’re just getting more expensive at a slower rate. For prices to show a decreasing trend, those percentages would need to be in the negatives.
A separate set of data found that in 2025, 81% of consumers said they would eat out at a restaurant if they had the money available to pay for it. In 2024, 95% of restaurant operators said consumers are more “value-conscious” than they used to be.
And it may very well be possible that household and individual incomes cannot always hold up with the inflation costs.
The median household income in Bend is $96,394 for an average of around two people per household.
The Source took some of the most popular meals from 15 different restaurants and added a 15% tip. For ease, meals in this article are defined as an entrée and a drink and do not include sides or appetizers.
If a person were to go out once a week, on average they would be spending around $23.57 on the meal and $3.54 on tips, per person.
Some community members share that oftentimes those tip prompts on the iPad don’t ask for 15%. They cite that some places feel like they are asking for higher tips than others.
“Most places start at like 18%, so I think I feel frustrated when the options to tip on a card reader start 18% to 20 to 25%,” community member Liz Levesque says. “I like when there are options that are more fair, so I can tip accordingly.”
Given the type of service people get when prompted for tips — self-checkout, merch tents at events, car oil change businesses — some locals feel the requests for tipping don’t feel appropriate.
“If I get a takeout order or something, they didn’t really do anything. If I am sitting down for service, that makes sense,” Tsuruda says. “Pay your employees so that we don’t have to tip them.”
Similar themes emerged in conversations with community members: restaurant staff should be paid a living wage.
Unlike other states, Oregon does not have a tip wage. Employees are given a set wage and the tips they make are seen as a bonus.
Other states like Idaho have a tip wage that offers workers lower wages, like $3.35 per hour. This is because it is expected that they will earn tips that will get them to or past the state’s minimum wage.
In Oregon, even on days with slow traffic, employees are guaranteed to make at least minimum wage. The minimum wage in Deschutes County is $15.05 per hour, although the amount a restaurant worker makes varies by establishment.
Some restaurant jobs in Deschutes pay $15.05 per hour while others can be upwards of $29 per hour.
Rent in Bend varies as well. Studios and small apartments can cost a person $1,125 to $1,700 depending on the area or type of place a person chooses to apply.
According to the City of Bend State of Housing Report for 2025, housing is considered affordable if the price for it is 30% or less of one’s gross income. This report found that 87% of renter households making $49,999 and below annually experienced cost burden.
In 2023, an estimated 24.5% of renter households were severely burdened, spending 50% or more of their gross income on housing.
Even without a set wage plus tips, a restaurant worker may still be making below what is needed to live comfortably in Bend.
The study on declining tip culture stated that the majority of consumers, around 61%, would like to extinguish tip culture completely. The alternative posed higher prices for meals to provide a higher wage for staff.
This method, common in many countries in Europe like Greece or France, includes any service fees in the bill. Not tipping for most places is typical, though taxi drivers, hotel workers, and tour guides can expect tips at times.
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