---
title: California Has the Worst Tippers in America, According to a New Ranking
description: How much should you tip at restaurants? Here's a ranking of the average tip in restaurants in all 50 states, from Delaware to California.
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editors:
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    role: Senior Editor
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    bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.
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published: '2023-03-07T16:59:40.000Z'
modified: '2024-01-10T14:37:38.000Z'
section: Economy and Politics
tags:
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![Close up of hand of person paying waiter for restaurant bill](https://img.money.com/2023/03/News-Generous-States-Tipping-Restaurants.jpg)

Americans are still tipping when they go out to eat, even as [inflation](https://money.com/things-getting-more-expensive-inflation/) pushes food prices higher. But [new data](https://pos.toasttab.com/news/q4-2022-restaurant-trends-report-valentines-super-bowl-tipping-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](https://money.com/best-credit-cards/) or another form of [digital payment](https://money.com/best-payment-gateways/), but not cash.

## 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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