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Spendable in the Pandemic: What Tipping Says About New Yorkers

economy $ 20 for a coffee

400 percent tip – New York’s brief era of generosity

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Almost normal again: Since life has returned to New York's bars, tips have also been falling – – –

Almost normal again: Since life has returned to New York’s bars, tips have also been falling

Quelle: picture alliance / ZUMAPRESS.com

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In no other city in the world is it expected that tips are as high as in New York. If you compare what people give in the pandemic with the number of infections, you see something astonishing: the curves are similar. That says a lot about the citizens.

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Pandemia? There is not much of this left in New York. The subway, once feared as a high-risk zone, is almost as full as it used to be. The trading rooms on Wall Street, eerily quiet a few months ago, are populated by traders. Tourists, if only domestic ones so far, flock to the once deserted Times Square.

And something else is now like it was before the outbreak of the corona pandemic: Nobody gives a $ 20 tip for a mug of coffee anymore.

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In hardly any other city in the world waiters, bartenders and delivery men expect such high tips as in New York. 18 percent is the average. Those who leave less make themselves unpopular – and are sometimes even asked to top up.

Because the additional income is an integral part of the wages. Without them, many restaurant employees would not be able to make ends meet. Employers often only pay the statutory minimum wage: eight dollars and 35 cents, a sum that will not get you very far in the expensive metropolis.

The citizens wanted to support the restaurants

Data from the Square and Toast apps, which millions of New Yorkers use to pay their restaurant bills, now shows how much tips were given during the pandemic. If you place the curve that shows the development of tips from April 2020 to today over that of corona infections, you see something amazing: They are similar.

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Source: WORLD infographic

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At the beginning of the pandemic, tips also shot up – along with the number of cases. When New York went into lockdown, an average of 25 percent was given, significantly more than before. The citizens knew that the restaurants were struggling to survive and apparently wanted to support them. Corona made New Yorkers more generous, more helpful.

April was a dark month. New York was considered an epicenter of the pandemic at the time. Public life came to a standstill and bars and restaurants had to close. Customers had food and drinks delivered or picked up everything themselves. At that time, some people gave 100, 200 or even 400 percent tips – for example, 20 dollars for a four-dollar coffee to go.

Thanks to the many delivery men

This is not surprising to social researchers. Research shows that people tip for four main reasons. First, you want to show gratitude and reward good service. That should have been an important motivation in the pandemic, when delivery men rushed from apartment to apartment while half the city was working from home.

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Employees in the US will soon have no choice – – – – –

Second, many customers want to meet social standards. That also played a role, after all, there was a sense of solidarity throughout the city, and mutual support was considered extremely important. And then there are those diners who want to impress others – or feel guilty for not tipping.

What happened after April? New Yorkers tipped less in the summer, when the virus was slowing to spread. By October the value fell to around 20 percent – no comparison to the first weeks of the pandemic, but still more than in the period before Corona. In winter, when the number of infections increased, tips rose again, to just under 22 percent.

The corona crisis now seems to have been overcome. 138 million Americans are fully vaccinated, which is 41 percent of the population. In New York, almost every second citizen has received both doses. And so the tips have also fallen back to their old value, as the data from Square and Toast show: to 18 percent.

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