Two, three or a hundred euros: who are the most generous customers with tips?

Do the French have sea urchins in their pockets when it comes to tipping? According to the latest study published by Sunday, a payment solution used in restaurants, only one table in five agrees to leave a tip in addition to the bill. To achieve this result, the company sifted through nearly a million additions in its partner establishments.

In light of the data collected, Sunday was able to draw up a ranking of the most generous regions in terms of “pourlich”. The leading pack is dominated by the South region, where one customer in three agrees to leave a tip, for an amount equivalent, on average, to 5.8% of the bill. Tips are just as generous in Normandy and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, but they are rarer there since only one in four additions are accompanied by a gratuity.

Contrary to popular belief, it is in Île-de-France that waiters are least rewarded for their service. The frequency of tipping is less than 20% in the most touristy region of France, which nevertheless has the highest median income in the national territory. The fate of waiters is hardly more enviable in the Pays de la Loire and Centre-Val de Loire regions, where tips represent less than 10% of bills.

Concerning the amounts, habits differ depending on the four corners of France. In the East, customers do not skimp on spending when it comes to spoiling the waiters: tips there are, on average, equivalent to 6.4% of the bill. For a note that amounts to 50 euros, this represents a little more than 3 euros. Conversely, the “tip” is reduced to the strict minimum in Occitanie, where it amounts to 4.5% of the bill on average, or a little more than 2 euros for a bill of 50 euros. Across the national territory, the average is 5.7%.

Finally, there remains the “exceptional tips”, more frequent during festive meals or in the event of large tables. The “biggest” tip recorded by Sunday since the start of the year was left in a restaurant in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes: it reached 112 euros. “Pourliches” of 104 euros and 94 euros were also pocketed by the waiters of two other restaurants, in Île-de-France and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. At the other end of the ranking, the most spoiled waiter in the Centre-Val-de-Loire region only received a 17 euro tip at the start of the year.

It is customary to say that the health crisis has accelerated the decline in tips, against a backdrop of dematerialization of payment methods. But, whether you prefer them frequent or exceptional, amazing or meager, tips are not incompatible with contactless payment. “With our application, servers collect three times more tips than before,” assures Kévin Meert, sales director of Sunday. Since our launch at the beginning of 2021, we have enabled restaurateurs to distribute 33 million euros in tips to their servers, with fair, simplified and secure management. No more excuses, then, to play stingy at the restaurant...