Image copyright
Reuters
Service staff could be vulnerable due to their close contact with customers
When cleaner José Zaragoza finished his job at a home, he was surprised to find he’d received a $100 tip on Venmo.
“I was like ‘hey you made a mistake’ – you sent an extra zero,” but the customer told him he’d given him a large tip “to help you and your family in these tough times.”
Mr Zaragoza’s business has dropped dramatically since the coronavirus pandemic hit the US. Right now, he has only had one cleaning job a day, and needs to take extra precautions including wearing a full body coverall, a mask and gloves, and washing every piece of his cleaning equipment before starting a job.
He’s noticed his regular customers are tipping him more – something he’s grateful for. “Many people tip me the equivalent of an extra hour’s work because they know I don’t have a lot of jobs,” he says, adding that the tips have helped him pay the rent.
There’ve been similar reports of generous tipping – sometimes extremely generous – across the US, as states start to re-open.
In Austin, Texas, one restaurant reopened on 30 April – and found a customer left $1,300 to staff as a “welcome back” tip.
Some delivery apps have also noticed an increase in tips since the pandemic began.
“Diners are being more generous with their tips to drivers, with percent tip across Grubhub and Seamless going up nearly 15%,” a spokeswoman for the food delivery service told the BBC.
Meanwhile, Instacart said that customer tips were up 99%, and shoppers’ earnings from tips had nearly doubled, since the start of the outbreak.
A spokeswoman for grocery delivery service said that by March, 97% of all orders included a tip – and by May, this had gone up further to 99%.
The increase could partly be due to larger grocery orders – or people hoping to ensure their orders are fulfilled. But there are cases of clear altruism too, where people have given large tips to strangers without expecting anything in return.
Image copyright
José Zaragoza
José Zaragoza has fewer cleaning jobs right now – but many customers have tried to help with bigger tips
Virtual tip jars have been set up in states throughout the US to help service staff who are out of work – with many people pledging to send a tip whenever they make themselves a drink at home.
One virtual tip site, ServiceIndustry.Tips, has over 75,000 service workers in its database. Volunteers vet applications to ensure they are from service staff, and visitors to the si