How Generous Are Illinois Tippers? New Study Reveals

Diners in full-service Illinois restaurants tip slightly below the national level of 19.2 percent, according to a recent report.

Illinois diners tipped an average of 19 percent in the busy fourth-quarter dining season last year, according to the restaurant platform Toast.

Delaware was the best state overall for tipping at 21.8 percent during Q4 2025, up from 21.1 percent in the previous quarter. California again was at the bottom, averaging 17.2 percent, the same as in the third quarter, according to the report.

“Tipflation,” the pandemic-era pressure to tip at higher amounts in more situations, for example, 20 percent or more, even in places without table service, may be easing.

Nationally, the average tip was the same in the fourth quarter as in the third. Tips at full-service restaurants began to level off in the second quarter of last year, the report said.

Tips at quick-service restaurants remained flat at 15.8 percent in the fourth quarter last year

Cash tips aren’t reflected in the report, which shows only gratuities left via Toast’s restaurant platform using a credit card.

An overwhelming majority of respondents to an informal survey for The Question, an exclusive Patch series on etiquette, said tipping is out of control. Several people said they’ve stopped tipping at coffee shops and fast food restaurants where someone just hands them a drink or a sandwich.

“I feel businesses should pay a fair wage and not expect me to supplement the pay of employees doing the basic functions of the business, for example, cooks and the cashier, when I’m just picking up an order,” an Arlington (Virginia) Patch reader said.

Several said tipping is an outdated system.

“For the life of me, I do not understand why companies that have tipped employees won’t just pay their employees what they are worth, just as any other job would,” a Crystal Lake-Cary (Illinois) Patch reader said. “It is not the responsibility of the customer to make sure the employee has a proper living wage.”

According to Illinois law, the base tipped wage for employees is $9 an hour.

Only a few respondents said they’d withhold a tip at a full-service restaurant if the service was exceptionally poor.

“I may not have got the best service, but give them the benefit of the doubt that maybe they were just having a very rough day,” a Champaign (Illinois) Patch reader said.

“I understand the reasons behind ‘poor service,’ and a lot of these are out of the server’s control,” a Boston Patch reader added.

• Read the Patch Exclusive: Here’s A Tip: Stop Asking For A Gratuity For Everything [The Question]