For a lot of people in various facets of the service industry, this time of year means that some customers will brighten up your holidays with a gift or a tip to show their appreciation. But new numbers from our surveying siblings at Consumer Reports break down which particular people get the most end-of-year love.
By far the most-tipped group on the Consumer Reports survey are the folks that clean your house. Nearly half the respondents say they tipped with cash, check or gift card, while an additional 12% provided some sort of gift, meaning that only 39% of respondents gave nothing.
Cleaning persons also had the highest median value of the gift or tip given at $50.
A not-very-close second place was the Teachers group, where only 48% of respondents said they gave some sort of gift. This is a significant drop from last year, when 60% of people gifted their educators.
On the hairy side of things, hairdressers edged out barbers, with 44% of respondents giving tips or gifts to the former and 38% to the latter. Hairdressers also received more money, with a median value of $15 compared to $10 for barbers.
Bringing up the rear in this year’s survey are mail carriers and sanitation workers. Only 21% of people gave some sort of tip or gift to the person that brings them the credit card applications and catalogs they never asked for. Meanwhile, only 12% showed their gratitude for the men and women who haul away our refuse every week.
Overall, 54% of respondents said they didn’t tip at least one of the 10 groups listed in the survey, and 38% said they didn’t tip any of the listed services.
Read the whole report at ConsumerReports.org.
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I don’t tip my mail man because there seems to be a different one every month.
I don’t tip my Garbage Man because around here they make a very descent living and they also seem so change every couple of months.
I give a Christmas gift to each of my children’s teachers. My kids go to very good schools with very good teachers and I appreciate that.
Can’t afford a cleaning person so…
Gardner… See above…
I don’t tip the paper boy because it ain’t a boy and I have never see them. Also they can’t seem to get the damn paper past the sidewalk.
I do tip the hell out of food servers if they can just keep up on the basics like keeping my drink glass full. That is really all I expect of them. Usually minimum of 20%.
I work at a fast food joint and people tip me directly. It’s always appreciated. It helps that I have worked there for several years and have a ton of regular customers whose orders I almost never forget lol.
Id tip them if it wasn’t just one guy driving a truck with an arm that reaches out and grabs the can, dumps it, drops the can wherever, and moves on to the next house.
Seriously the dude doesn’t even leave his seat.
I guess I should explain why i tip the mailman. We’ve had the same mailman for almost 10 years and he is really nice and brings my package’s to my house instead of making me drive to the post office, and that is worth my $25 gift a year. And because I’m lazy. Ok?
I baked cookies for my son’s preschool teachers this year, got my mail carrier a box of fudge, and if I could catch the UPS man who delivers all of my Amazon boxes, I’d get him a box of candy, too. But I’ve never thought about getting a gift for our garbage guys. Like other people, I’m used to my garbage being picked up before the buttcrack of dawn, however, since I’ve lived in this particular area of town, they tend to come anytime between 8am and noon. The two men who come rolling down my road in the mornings have been fairly friendly. If my 3yo son (who loves watching dump trucks) and I are out front when they come by, they’ll wave, ask him how he’s doing, then honk the horn and wave as they leave – always with a big smile as if they love doing their jobs. I think we’ll wait for them on Thursday with some goodies.
I don’t ever see my garbage people. Nor my mail carrier, and it’s never the same person two weeks in a row.
I do tip the lady that cuts my hair. It costs $15 and I give her $5. If I have a coupon, I still give her $5. I always ask for the same lady too because I like the way she cuts it. And she’s nice.
I live in an apartment. I take the trash out to the trash house in back of my building and it somehow disappears. I wouldn’t know how to go about tipping the garbage guys.
The mattress delivery guys got over-tipped because they carried a full size mattress and box springs up four flights of stairs in the dark because our building had a power failure the day they came and the elevators didn’t work. I felt terrible about it.
“No tips, ever” is completely fair to all.
Stop tips now.
If you work for the government you should not be expecting a tip. Your tip is the taxpayer funded salary, health benefits, and retirement. Its bad enough the state/local public employees are driving us over the bankruptcy cliff here in California, but to also expect a tip is beyond insulting.
I’d like to know WHERE they did this..
This isnt reality in how IT IS, but consider the Old way
6 guys on a truck collecting Garbage… can hit 60-100 homes in an hour, and you are being charged around $50 per month for each home..$3000-$5000 per hour to share.
NOW,
1 person drives a truck, that automatically, picks up all the trash..At over 100 per hour..
Still $40-50 per house..
$5000 per hour for 1 persons work…
The person(s) that clean your home, come 1 time per week, at most… $50-200 per time…
Gardner who carefully grows my roses I would tip, the landscaper, who cuts the grass, I do not.
Of course its not really a tip its a Christmas gift. Or in the case of the garbage man, a bribe.
Don’t tip anyone. But first tell your state representatives to pass legislation that guarantees a livable wage.
My garbage guys have destroyed my garbage cans, left garbage I put out on the curb for another day, left garbage in the street and the cans and, most recently, didn’t bother picking up recyclables in my development on our recycle pickup day, instead taking it with the regular trash which probably helped jack up the town’s tipping fees for that day. They don’t deserve a tip (and they will be gone in 2 weeks anyway as a new company will be taking over in 2012).
Mailman — I’m not even sure who it is as our mailman for the last 10 years was replaced with someone new. New person delivers earlier.
Teachers get a gift from the entire class (we give $$ to class moms and they buy the gift).
Newspaper carrier — unless I mail a card to their house (and yes she gives a card to customers with her address) I don’t see her or pay her personally.
Barber – I shave my head myself. I think I will get me a nice bottle of wine.
I used to tip at the holidays, then I took an arrow to the knee.
My garbage people don’t even get out of the truck. They drive and operate the little claw that picks up the can and dumps it in the back. While I’m certain it takes some skill to do it efficiently, I certainly never have any sort of interaction with them. My manicurist (actually pedicurist) sits at my feet and hand scrubs the callouses off my stanky heels and paints little snowflakes or flowers on my toe nails to make them look lovely. Anyone who is willing to do that deserves a HUGE tip.
And why does no one tip retail employees? I carry dining tables up the stairs, give design tips and help load sofas into people’s cars in the freezing cold. Nobody ever throws any cash at me.
Garbage men in my city make 80-120k per year (seriously). They should be tipping me.
Please tip baristas for the holidays, they usually don’t get any kind of Christmas bonus from their boss. They usually can’t even afford to take time off for the holidays.
I would never tip the trash guy. In my city there was a big investigation and I think criminal charges where residents were “tipping” the trash guys to take trash, i.e. construction debris, or other items they are not allowed to take or picking up more than is permitted (i.e. you have to pay the City if you put out more bulk or yard waste than allowed).
These tips were considered bribes and a lot of people got fired and in trouble.
I tip people who give me personal services, i.e. my hairdresser who has been cutting my hair for 10+ years who will let me swing by her house, we live on the same street, and trim my bangs. I tip my dog walker, who happens to also be my neighbor’s child. That is it.