How Much You Should Tip For Coffee, According To Baristas

Caffeine is integral to Americans’ daily rituals, so why don’t more people tip baristas? According to a Pew report, only 27% of Americans said they sometimes tip baristas; 24% of people said they never do. Factoring in low wages and inflation, not tipping — which is by no means mandatory — can be detrimental to any barista, including one employed by Starbucks. 

“I know everybody talks about [how] Starbucks pays their baristas so well. They make the equivalent of $22 an hour, and they have benefits. But you want to support your independent coffee shop,” said Joe Humpert, a former barista and former manager at Northern Kentucky’s Roebling Point Books and Coffee and a two-decade veteran of the coffee industry. “The smaller the coffee shop, the less likely they are to be able to fairly compensate for people. And if the prices of the drinks were raised — because margins on coffee are so narrow — to where you could pay the baristas $15 an hour, your latte would be $10 instead of $5.”

At the gratuity-free Parable Coffee in Columbus, Ohio, a latte starts at $8, meaning they can pay the staff more of a living wage and have a “pay what you like” program. However, it’s a rare business model. 

As a rule of thumb, Humpert tips a dollar a drink, even on drip, because of all the additional labor and maintenance that goes into brewing the coffee, cleaning the machines and interacting with customers.

“But if I [order] more than one drink or if I get complicated drinks, or if there’s some conversation that has to take place about what’s going on, then I’ll usually tip more than a dollar a drink,” he said. “Same with a craft cocktail.”

Catalina said tips are a big part of her income, and at times, customers are quite generous with the tips. “People are like, ‘Oh, it’s just a cup of coffee. [A tip doesn’t cost] that much,’” she said.

But sometimes, they don’t want to tip on a drip coffee. “I did find that when I worked in a smaller town, a lot of people were tipping a lot less than in a bigger city,” Catalina said.

One issue that creates a barrier between the barista and the customer is the tipping screen powered by programs like Square and Toast. The screen prompts the customer to tip a certain dollar amount or percentage or not tip at all. Despite that technology, some coffee shops additionally have a tip jar on hand for people to toss in extra change. 

“You basically are telling a customer, ‘Don’t walk away yet,’” Humpert said about the technology. “You still need to do stuff. And you’re not saying, ‘Give me a tip,’ but you’re saying, ‘At least hit no thanks and sign it.’ It’s tedious. It’s one of those things where they’re trying to build in conveniences, and they’re trying to make everything more touchless or self-explanatory, and it just ends up creating other problems.”

Catalina said, “People forget to finish the screen sometimes, or they’ll walk away, and I have a harder time asking somebody to finish the screen. I’m still working on that.”

Jonathon Sepulveda, the director of coffee and sales for roaster Utopian Coffee in Fort Wayne, Indiana, got his start in specialty coffee 25 years ago in SoCal as a barista and coffee shop manager.

“I think there’s something about this technology that just puts this odd divide between the barista and the customer where this machine portion of it just turns around and inserts. You must pay for this genuine experience,” he told HuffPost. “And I think that is a challenge for both the barista and the customer. I guess there shouldn’t be any obligation across the board unless it’s genuine. I think that’s how I like to receive tips, anyways — not when it feels like this kind of weird, forced thing.”

At Catalina’s shop, she doesn’t have to turn the screen around, but she thinks tipping should be private. “They can tip if they want,” she said. “I feel like that’s their business. I’m going to walk away and start their drink. That way, I’m not staring at the screen watching them do it. I understand why you wouldn’t tip because it’s your money. If it’s good, you’re going to tip more. If it’s not as good, you’re going to tip less. Now that more people rely on tips, you just should do it anyway.”