Suggested tips for coffee and water hit as they hit a new high

Americans take to social media to offer out-of-control tip suggestions, which they say have gotten unjustifiably high in recent months.

Inflation, self-checkout machines, and a new expectation to tip for transactions like buying a water bottle have prompted many to share their frustration online.

Social media users have recently posted images of receipts that appear to show tips as high as 30 to 50 percent.

“Remember when the suggested amounts were 15%, 18%, and 20%?” Twitter user Jeff Catalfino wrote alongside a photo of a receipt totaling $61.48 earlier this year.

“I tip 20% for anything but the worst service. Sometimes even a little more. But 30% will never happen,” he added. “Tipping has gone rogue. Everybody has to step back a lot.’

Americans will now be even more fed up after a new law passed in Colorado allowing Walmart and McDonald’s employees to accept tips. In Maryland, a unionized Apple store is also in talks to introduce a tipping system.

Twitter user Andrew Johns shared a receipt with a suggested tip range of 20 percent to 24 percent, but pointed out a four percent “kitchen” fee added to his bill.

He said: ‘Not only does the cost of dining increase with higher food prices and therefore higher tip, but also add a higher percentage of tip and kitchen costs.

“Assuming the top end of this ‘suggested’ tip, the total tip is almost 30%!”

Some claim to have come across suggested tips that start at 30 percent and go up to 50 percent.

A Reddit shared an image of an iPad showing the tilt range to the popular “mindlyinfuriating” subreddit, captioning it: “A bit presumptuous are we?”

“The absolute brutality and arrogance of putting those amounts on there,” one commenter wrote under the post. “If I saw that screen, I wouldn’t even bother going to Custom Amount.

“I’d skip right away, pay my bill, and never return to that place.”

Social media commentators have particularly expressed frustration with being asked to tip on an iPad after simple transactions.

TikToker @poorandhungry went viral this week after posting a video claiming she was asked at Ben & Jerry’s to tip a whopping 50 percent for a $2 ice cream cone.

When she chose not to tip, the cashier expressed her frustration with a facial expression, according to the tiktoker.

“Like on no planet is that ever appropriate, even if I have $100 worth of ice cream, and I’m not tipping you,” she said of the awkward encounter.

Consumers say they’re increasingly encountering iPad machines that prompt them to tip even if they haven’t interacted with an employee.

“I picked up takeout yesterday and was shown one of these screens,” said a Twitter user who goes by @RealPandaTheMan and posted an image of an iPad’s screen suggesting tips.

“Will they hate me if I press no?” The guilt is insane…”

Another TikToker going by @thejmancomesquick posted a clip complaining about being asked to tip for a pizza he ordered online and picked up himself.

“They were like ‘oh, do you want to leave a 20 percent tip?’ for what? What have you done?’ he said annoyed.

“20 percent is when people come to your table and wait for you and pick things up and bring you things!” What have you done? Did you direct me to your website? It’s crazy!’

Shockingly, a TikToker going by @broadwaychey claimed that she was asked to leave a tip while ordering an item online.

‘I’m sorry, what? Am I a bad person? Because it makes me feel guilty, which is what they want,” she explained. “But I’m not tipping you, I don’t even know what I’m tipping you for.”

A traveler asked for a tip after buying a $6 bottle of water at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey told Wall Street Journal the iPad prompt resembled “emotional blackmail.”

While business owners say the automated prompts significantly increase tips and thus raise staff wages, critics of the new tip culture say that employers are placing the responsibility of paying their employees on consumers rather than raising wages themselves.

Some consumers have complained that they don’t even know where the tips are going if they don’t get help from an employee.

And it looks like tipping will continue to increase in the near future.

A bill passed in Colorado earlier this month would allow employees of companies like McDonald’s and Walmart to accept cash tips. Both companies have previously banned employees from taking tips from customers.

Meanwhile, staff at Apple’s first union store in the US are in talks to introduce a tipping system at the checkout.

Employees at the Towson, Maryland, branch, which joined the union last year, plan to ask customers if they want to add an optional gratuity worth 3 to 5 percent of their purchase or an adjusted amount.

Currently, Apple’s policy states that store associates who accept a tip from a customer are automatically fired.