(Photo via alexiustan's flickr)
New Yorkers already have a crummy reputation when it comes to generously tipping their delivery people, falling below the national average of 13.9%—in and of itself not great—to a paltry 13.1%. So we don't crack the top 25 best tipping cities in the USA, but surely some of us are doing better (and worse) than others. Streeteasy and Seamless crunched some numbers to point the fingers of shame at the neighborhoods with the tightest tipping purse strings and (surprise, surprise), Manhattan residents who pay the highest median rent are the most miserly in all the city. Guys, we've been over this before.
The study concluded that "Upper Carnegie Hill," which we'll take to mean the high 90s on the Upper East Side, were the worst tippers in the city, with a median tip percentage of just 12.3% on delivery orders. (N.B.: The percentage displayed on the map is 13.3%, but that appears to be a typo, as the Streeteasy article singles the neighborhood out as the cheapest tippers at 12.3%.
) Upper Carnegie Hill—or UpCarHi (sorry)—was one of 17 Manhattan neighborhoods who tipped the least out of the top 20 bad tipping neighborhoods in the city for 2014. Is it time to consider eliminating tipping on delivery orders, too?
There's cause for hope, however, as Brooklyn and Queens are doing the heavy lifting when it comes to taking care of their delivery people. Greenpoint, Sunset Park and Bushwick apparently give a median tip of 15% or more, though that's not the 20% that should be standard across the industry. Still, a few bad eggs could be dragging down that average. Queens comes in a close second for borough generosity, with Astoria, Long Island City, Ridgewood and Hunter's Point clocking in between 14.2 and 14.5%.
The conclusion: people living in pricey neighborhoods must be saving their tipping money towards paying their rent. Must explain who they can afford those $95 million penthouses.
