How much do you tip at a restaurant?

Nothing, I live in a country where it's the employer's responsibility to pay their staff a livable wage.

I was going to answer, but then you clarified on the body of your post that you only wanted answers from people in the US, lol

but I’ve heard these days it’s not unusual to tip up to 40%!

That seems pretty unusual to me.

I normally tip 20%.

Typically 20-25 at a restaurant. I’m not a fan of tipping for transactions where I’m not served. I only tip when someone does something.

in Canada, usually 15%, if the service is outstanding or i'm a regular I'll tip 20%

I'm almost always a 25%. I used to work in the industry in a previous lifetime, and tips were what kept me afloat. Now I'm an overpaid professional, and have no qualm paying it forward.

The only situations I will tip much less is if:

• Service was just absolutely fucking abysmal due to very clear negligence.
• It's one of these new hipster restaurants that keep popping up, where you order and pay for your food upfront and are expected to tip then as well, without knowing how service will be. I'm not talking about food carts or kiosks either, these are actual restaurants. I hate the expectation that I should just pay an extra premium without even having a chance to evaluate the experience.

Growing up, and even after working in foodservice, I was always told to tip at least 20% (almost) regardless of service.

There's been maybe two times I didn't tip 20% and the lower tip was definitely earned.

Zero. I believe that the negotiations of an employee's market value are between the employee and their employer. I don't believe that it is my responsibility to charitably subsidize a company through the subsidization of their employees' wages.

Nothing I live in Australia

15% flat always. Canada has sadly embraced tipping culture so I'll not deny anyone the going rate or judge them at their workplace - but Vancouver is also expensive as fuck and anything over 15% starts putting meals close to the 100$ mark.

15% typically, more if it warrants it. Food keeps getting more expensive, so the percentage doesn’t have to go up.

Usually 20-25% unless the service is inexcusably bad (like 1-5% of the time, and even then I'll tip like 15%). I'll typically approximate 20% and round up to the nearest dollar, then maybe add a dollar or two. I remember 15% being standard with it being acceptable to go down to 10 or up to 20; 18% was sorta my standard at the time, and I'd only go as low as 15%. I've only ever asked to speak to a manager three times that I can remember, and both times were due to what the kitchen sent out to me. I still tipped fully to the server since it wasn't their fault. I was a chef for years, so I know how stressful it gets back there, but there's still no excuse for the dishes I've sent back. There's usually an offer to cook something else, but if I'm sending food back it's because I don't trust the kitchen to send out food that won't give me food poisoning.

Tipped minimum wage here (and therefore all tipped wage) is $2.17/hour. I believe that these businesses should be forced to pay proper wages, but stiffing your server doesn't achieve that. These people are on their feet running around for hours and they usually don't have enough support or leadership to do their job as well as they'd like to, and then they're too exhausted and broke to study or work to break into another industry. We're gonna have a lot of 30-50 year old servers living paycheck to paycheck until their knees and back give out. I'm down with tipping an extra couple bucks so they can get some Dr Scholl's.

100-200% depending on how good the service was.

Downside to this is I can't afford to go out as often. :C

In the USA: 20%. In Europe: 10%. If service is exceptional or bad, I adjust up or down.

Usually 20% and round up the change. Less of there are server issues. A buck or two more if service is super. I don't tip if I'm standing up when i order.

I usually aim for the nearest dollar around 30%.

I'm a defense contractor and none of the "work" I have ever done in my life has done any human any good. I think it's important to use my nonsense salary to pay the people who actually add value to society.

Typically somewhere between 15-20%. I do a rough mental calculation figuring out 10% by moving the decimal, then either double that or figure out what half of that is and roughly add that amount to the 10% amount, then go with a nice roundish number (to the nearest quarter) in that range. Usually a little higher than my rough estimate for 15% if I’m on that low end just so my rough math doesn’t inadvertently shortchange the server.

I make my calculation based on the total with tax included. I know some people go on the pretax amount.

BONUS: If I’m doing a delivery service like DoorDash, I look up my distance to the restaurant and make sure the tip is always at least equal to the mileage. I used to drive for them and $1/mile was always my minimum. DoorDash at least would typically only kick in $2/delivery, unless there were bonus promos. Since the driver might not be at the restaurant I figure that’s probably enough to get them to the restaurant, then the tip will get them from there to me. Actually, at home my house is several miles from any restaurants, so I usually go $4 above that to make sure the driver doesn’t lose money getting back to civilization. If I’m at a hotel close to restaurants I won’t necessarily do that. If it’s something where I’d like to try to get the best service I’ll go higher; they typically offer the highest pay orders to their top rated drivers first.

I have generally tipped at least 20%. But tipped workers in my state just fought to keep their sub-minimum wage, because republicans convinced them that people would stop tipping if they were paid more. Tipped minimum wage was going up to $6, but now it's only going up to $4.74. I've been tipping too much, and will bring it back down to max 15%.

When I have been in the us I used to tip around 15%. Accepted that as a weirdness of the us.

On my home country tipping is just weird and unheard of, so 0%.

Edit: last time I was in the us was like 15 years ago.

0%. We do not have a tipping culture, nor will I ever move in the direction of us having one.

EDIT: I'm not in the U.S so my answer does not apply

When I lived in the US, 15%. Now 0%, feels great.

15 pct is what I do now on average. No tip for takeout.

I give $2 for a pizza, $1-2 if I’m picking up to go. Usually I go 15-20% for standard service but rarely tip over $30 a server unless the meal was outstanding.

If i was still there I'd still tip 20% cash preferred. (Card/electronic transactions are more often stolen by management)

I’m a good tipper, having waited tables before, so usually ~30% but it’s certainly not expected. 20% is the standard tip.