Etiquette Experts Say Decades-Old 'Don't Tip the Owner' Rule Is Fading

The decades-old custom of skipping a tip when the business owner is the one serving you is losing its grip, according to etiquette experts cited by Money.com. "It was a traditional etiquette and still is a traditional etiquette," said Daniel Post Senning, great-great-grandson of Emily Post and coauthor of "Emily Post's Etiquette, The Centennial Edition," explaining that not tipping an owner was historically meant to respect their status as a business professional rather than a service worker.

The Emily Post Institute's current guidance recommends a 15% to 20% tip at restaurants, where federal tipped minimum wage sits at $2.13 an hour, and a similar range for personal services like hair, nails and massages — but treats baristas and bartenders more loosely, suggesting $1 to $2 is sufficient. Senning said most owners working in a service role today are comfortable accepting tips, even though some customers still skip tipping them out of habit.

Not everyone agrees tipping should extend to owners at all. YouTuber Quentin Latham argued that owners who set their own prices should build fair pay into those prices rather than rely on tips, and that gratuities should be reserved for "hospitality" work rather than extended to mechanics, roofers or gardeners. Andrea Andrews, owner of Hearts & Hair salon in Fort Collins, Colorado, said she receives fewer tips than her own employees do, despite relying on them as part of her income.