Every State’s Average Tipping Percentage, Mapped

Tipping is the norm for restaurants in the United States, with most patrons sticking to the 20% rule when it comes to how much to add to the bill before heading out after a good meal.

But not all states are the same when it comes to how much customers leave in tips. Some states stick to the 20% rule, however, the national average is only 18.8%, according to data collected by Toast. Some states even fall below the average when leaving money for their servers at full-service and quick-service restaurants.

Is your state one of the more generous ones for tippers, or are servers getting short-changed? See how the best and worst tipping states stack up, as reported by Visual Capitalist.

Biggest Tips

1. Delaware – 22.1%
2. West Virginia – 21.0%
3. New Hampshire – 20.9%
4. (tie) Wyoming – 20.7%
4. (tie) Ohio – 20.7%
4. (tie) Indiana – 20.7%

Delaware customers are clearly the most generous residents when it comes to helping out their servers, coming in at 22.1% for an average restaurant tip. That's more than a percent higher than second-place West Virginia.

Toast found that the best tippers tend to be in smaller states like Delaware and New Hampshire over larger populations like California, Texas, Florida, and New York—the latter of which all tip lower than 20% on average.

In total, 15 out of 51 states (which includes the District of Columbia) tip at least 20% on bills, with 15th-place Michigan coming in at that exact mark.

Smallest Tips

1. California – 17.3%
2. District of Columbia – 17.5%
3. Washington – 17.8%
4. Nevada – 18.2%
5. Florida – 18.3%

States with a big population don’t translate to states with big tippers. California, for example, is the most populated state but has the lowest average percentage for tipping.

Florida, which has the third-largest population in the country, also makes the top five of lowest tippers with only an average 18.3% tip for customers. And Texas, which has the second-highest population, makes the top 10 list of lowest tippers, with an average of 18.6%.

One reason states like California and Washington may be bad tippers could be due to minimum wage laws that customers are familiar with, and therefore are tipping—or not tipping—accordingly. In California, for example, restaurant workers receive $16.90 per hour, while Washington workers earn $17.13 an hour. That’s much higher than restaurant workers in Delaware, who are only required to make $2.23 per hour.

Tipping Fatigue Is Setting In

Have you ever purchased something up at the cash register and a screen pops up asking for a tip? These types of tactics have become more prevalent in recent years, which may be one reason why tips aren't as high as you might expect.

A 2023 study by the Pew Research Center already identified this tip-flation issue, with 72% of respondents saying tipping was expected in more places than it had been five years earlier, before the COVID-19 pandemic. And 40% of Americans said they opposed businesses' suggested tip amounts for customers, compared to only 24% of people who were in favor of it.

But there may be a little silver lining among workers who earn tips. Toast found that the average tip for a full-service restaurant has been rising slightly after hitting a seven-year low of 19.1% back in the second quarter of 2025.

More State-By-State Data: