Fed-up Canadians back petition calling for an end to tipping culture
Whether it’s grabbing a coffee, picking up takeout, or paying for a meal, Canadians are getting tired of being asked to tip at every turn.
A petition calling for an end to tipping culture in Canada is gaining fresh momentum, with thousands of people backing its push for “fair wages, fair practices.” The Change.org petition, kickstarted by Warren Narayan in July 2024, recently saw a surge of support with 12,500 new signatures in less than 24 hours.
Narayan states that the cost of living continues to rise, with Canadians paying more for food, services, and entertainment.
“The problem isn’t that people don’t deserve to be paid fairly. It’s that paying employees is the responsibility of businesses, not their customers,” he states.
“Nobody should feel obligated to supplement someone’s wages simply because a payment terminal asks them to. We want to see a Canada where businesses take responsibility for paying their employees, prices are transparent, and tipping is a genuine choice.”
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He added that Canadians shouldn’t feel like they’ve “done something wrong” when they don’t tip. And an increasing number of Canadians appear to share the sentiment.
A report by Actual states that 67 per cent of tipped workers in Canada say they’ve seen their tip amounts decline over the past two years, with Ontario reporting the sharpest drop at 72 per cent.
The petition calls on the government to eliminate lower minimum wages for tipped employees, improve transparency around employee compensation, and make payment-terminal tipping prompts easier to bypass.
Minimum wage rates vary in Canada, ranging from $15 in Alberta to $20.17 in Nunavut. Forty-three per cent of Canadian tipped workers said they rely on tips to cover essential expenses such as rent, groceries, and bills.
According to the report, Ontario workers report the sharpest decline in tips, with 72 per cent saying their tips have decreased over the past two years — the highest percentage of any province.
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The petition urges Canadians not to feel obligated to tip, consider tipping a fixed dollar amount instead of percentages, pay attention to suggested tip calculations, and support businesses that treat employees fairly. It adds that it’s not about criticizing tipping customers or employees, but rather it’s about “questioning a system that places responsibility for compensation on customers.”
“Let’s make tipping a choice again,” writes Narayan. “We should be able to pay for a product or service, receive what we paid for, and leave without being made to feel that we owe something more.”
Several Canadians shared their support, with one pointing out that tipping puts stress on the elderly.
“My mom has major anxiety about this and the process,” one person wrote. “Tipping used to be on service for a sit-down experience; now tipping has been added for almost every service.”
“Won’t be as awkward if this stops,” another stated.
“If Australia and New Zealand have a no-tipping culture, so should we,” one supporter wrote.
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With files from Natalia Buia