Denver Has Some of The Most Generous Tippers in America

By Shawn Patrick on March 10, 2023

Photo by Francis Dean/Corbis via Getty Images

Servers depend on tips to make money and after being on the job for a while, most develop a good sense about who’s going to be a good tipper and who isn’t. That intuition may come in handy, but a new report reveals which cities have the most generous tippers. And the one topping the list is a little surprising.

Restaurant software firm Toast looked at metropolitan areas to determine which one is the best tipping city. They looked only at transactions where the tip was added on a credit card or digital payment, so it doesn’t include those paid in cold, hard cash.

The cities with the most generous tippers are:

1. Cleveland: 20.6%
2. Denver: 19.8%
3. Salt Lake City: 19.6%
4. Phoenix: 19.5%
5. Richmond: 19.3%
6. Chicago: 19.3%
7. New Orleans: 19.0%
8. New York: 18.7%
9. Washington, D.C.: 18.6%
10. Seattle: 18.0%
11. Los Angeles: 17.5%
12. San Francisco: 17.0%

How is the highest tip average only 20.6%? Isn’t that the bare minimum for good service?