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California Has the Worst Tippers in America, According to a New Ranking

By: Sarah Hansen
Editor: Brad Tuttle
Published: Mar 07, 2023 3 min read
Close up of hand of person paying waiter for restaurant bill
Money; Getty Images

Americans are still tipping when they go out to eat, even as inflation pushes food prices higher. But new data released by Toast, a payments platform for restaurants, shows that not every state tips equally.

You can find the most generous tippers in Delaware, where restaurant patrons tipped an average of 21.8% on their dining bills in the fourth quarter. California was the least generous state – tips there averaged just 17.5%.

Toast also ranked the cities with the most generous tippers: Cleveland came out on top of the 12 major metro areas analyzed, with an average tip of 20.6% in the fourth quarter. Residents of San Francisco tipped the least — just 17%.

Toast’s data from 79,000 restaurants across the country includes tips made on a credit card or another form of digital payment, but not cash.

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The data

Here’s how all the states stacked up against each other, from the highest average tip to the lowest.

  1. Delaware: 21.8%
  2. Indiana: 20.8%
  3. Wyoming: 20.8%
  4. Kentucky: 20.7%
  5. West Virginia: 20.6%
  6. Ohio: 20.6%
  7. New Hampshire: 20.6%
  8. South Carolina: 20.4%
  9. Wisconsin: 20.3%
  10. Pennsylvania: 20.3%
  11. Maine: 20.3%
  12. Michigan: 20.2%
  13. Missouri: 20.1%
  14. Rhode Island: 20.1%
  15. Montana: 20.1%
  16. Iowa: 20.0%
  17. Colorado: 19.9%
  18. Kansas: 19.9%
  19. Nebraska: 19.9%
  20. Maryland: 19.7%
  21. North Dakota: 19.7%
  22. North Carolina: 19.6%
  23. Idaho: 19.6%
  24. Alaska: 19.6%
  25. Tennessee: 19.5%
  26. Vermont: 19.5%
  27. Virginia: 19.5%
  28. Massachusetts: 19.4%
  29. South Dakota: 19.4%
  30. Oregon: 19.4%
  31. Alabama: 19.4%
  32. Arizona: 19.3%
  33. Connecticut: 19.3%
  34. Illinois: 19.3%
  35. Georgia: 19.3%
  36. Utah: 19.2%
  37. Oklahoma: 19.2%
  38. Minnesota: 19.2%
  39. Mississippi: 19.1%
  40. Arkansas: 19.0%
  41. New Jersey: 19.0%
  42. New Mexico: 18.9%
  43. Texas: 18.9%
  44. Louisiana: 18.8%
  45. New York: 18.7%
  46. Hawaii: 18.7%
  47. Nevada: 18.4%
  48. Florida: 18.3%
  49. Washington: 18.2%
  50. California: 17.5%
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