The U.S. experienced a tipping revolution during Covid -- and the rest of the world did not.

Pizza? Coffee? Beer? Add 20%!

Before Covid, the tipping rules were pretty simple in the United States.

You tipped 20% for services — hair cuts, waiter service at restaurants, and hotel stuff — but not for being handed a coffee out a window, a beer at a stadium, or a pizza box across a counter. That all changed with Covid.

When the novel coronavirus arrived on U.S. shores, businesses immediately adopted contactless credit card payment and those new payment systems allowed businesses to accept credit card tips. Counter tipping that was once a jar where you could throw a dollar or some loose change became a structured procedure where, after tapping your credit card, you are now prompted to tip 18%, 20%, or 25%. Cheeky businesses will sometimes set their systems to accept 30%, 40% and even 50% tips! And businesses selling cheaper items, like coffee, might put dollar amounts before you hit $10, which effectively leads to tipping 33% ($1) for a $3 cup of joe.

These new tipping norms also apply to orders placed online. If you want to order a pizza or burger online for pick-up, online ordering platforms will all prompt tipping comparable to what one would tip if sitting down at a table for an hour rather than personally walking or driving to the business and picking up one’s own food, perhaps from an unattended shelf.

So, basically, given the immense social pressure to tip in the U.S. — particularly at businesses preparing food — everything became 20% more expensive during the pandemic. And then prices surged even higher with post-lockdown inflation.

In Europe and Japan, however, tipping norms remained the same — or non-existent — during and after the pandemic.

When I traveled to Stockholm in fall 2020, I went to a bakery, asked for a kanelbulle and black coffee, tapped my credit card, and walked out the door. Then, in France, I did the same thing at boulangeries and sit-down restaurants — tap and go. In Italy, when I visited an empty Venice, I wasn’t prompted to tip for the pizza box handed to me across the counter — I tapped and left. If the business didn’t accept credit cards, I paid and took my change, because there was nowhere to leave tips that weren’t expected. In other words, no new tipping norms.

Similarly, a few weeks ago, I went to Japan — there was no tipping before the pandemic and there’s no tipping now. In all of these places, prices only increased due to whatever inflation occurred over the past few years, but there wasn’t a punishing 20% on top.

With the possible exception of Canada — where I’ve had people tell me the tipping revolution was a bit milder — the U.S. was the only country in the world that experienced this tipping revolution. Is anyone surprised that U.S. consumers feel particularly upset about their economy?