What's The Proper Amount To Tip At A Bar? Debate Erupts After Embarrassing Incident

Debating is raging about the proper tip amount for people grabbing some drinks at a bar.

As readers of OutKick's Weekend Recap know (send your reactions to David.Hookstead@outkick.com), I saw a truly embarrassing and bizarre incident unfold Sunday.

A popular bar I often go to had a group run up a massive tab and tip just a couple dollars. I believe there were roughly 10 people involved, total sales were several hundred dollars and the tip was literally a couple bucks, per the staff. I was shown some digital sales receipts that appeared to confirm an entire group walked out without tipping virtually at all.

I was horrified. Hell, I was embarrassed and it had nothing to do with me.

OutKick readers weigh in on the proper tip for a bar debate.

I've always considered myself a generous tipper. It's a baseline of 20% for me even with terrible service, and that number goes up dramatically the more I like the bartender. We'll get more into that in a bit, but more than anything, I wanted to know what the OutKick readers felt.

Turns out OutKick's readers, for the most part, are pretty generous as well. Virtually all the answers were different variations of the replies below. Give them a read and send me your thoughts to David.Hookstead@outkick.com. Remember, this is just tipping in a bar! Not tipping in general. Important context.

Some people think it's okay to tip nothing at all or drastically reduce it tied to service.

Tips and tipping should always be very generous, in my working class opinion.

Okay, let us now break this down from my point of view. In my mind, tipping more is always a better option than playing it safe. Now, I don't need anyone emailing me claiming I have a ton of money and just throw it around. That's simply not true, but whenever there's a debate about tipping, people immediately start making assumptions. I'll be a working class guy until the end of my days. Now that we have that on the record, let's dive into the meat of this heated debate.

We can debate all day long about whether or not bartenders like tips or would prefer a higher minimum wage. Any bartender worth their salt knows being tipped out is by far and away the better option for many reasons, but mostly because the earnings ceiling is higher.

Now, I've also seen some people speculate the service might have been poor. It wasn't. The bartender is as rock solid as they come, but even if service is poor, you'll catch me dead before you catch me skimping on the tip. I do have to sleep at night and look myself in the mirror in the morning and be happy. I've never once found myself unhappy for tipping more than maybe is normal. I would feel terrible if I did what the group did Sunday.

What is the proper amount to tip at the bar? (Credit: Getty Images)

So, what should you tip? The bare minimum in my mind is 20%, and that's for an experience that doesn't move the needle and is quickly forgotten.

Even if the service is awful or something goes wrong, I'm not going under 20%. It simply won't happen. That leads me to the second part, if the service is great, that tip is going to SOAR. It's not unheard of for my football group to tip 50% on a bar tab, and it's for one simple reason. If bartenders and staffers are going to give us a great time and work hard to make sure we're having fun, then I'm going to repay the favor.

Also, here's a little advice for everyone. Being a regular at a bar where the staff likes you goes miles in terms of getting the occasional free drink. If a bartender throws me some free drinks, the price of those drinks just gets automatically added to the tip. I don't care if it's at a bar I'm at all the time or just a one-off. A bartender slinging a couple free or discounted beers is going to get it on the backend of the transaction 100% of the time.

I believe in tipping bartenders very well. (Credit: David Hookstead)

I'm also a big believer in being extra generous around the holidays. I definitely throw in an extra few dollars around Thanksgiving and Christmas just to brighten up everyone's days. In fact, my friend and I felt so bad about this Sunday incident - truly appalling - that I tipped extra because I was that uncomfortable with what the group had done by leaving a couple dollars.

I think the standard should be as follows:

And to be clear, I don't order stuff that is tough to make. Not at all. I'm straight light beer with the occasional margarita mixed in. The drink makes no difference to me. It's all about the baseline and then how much I'm enjoying the experience to climb the ladder.

Also, a good looking bartender asking, "Hey, aren't you that guy from OutKick?" would probably result in a fat tip immediately. To be clear, this has never happened, but good to plan for whatever might occur.

What did I get right? What do you disagree with? Let me know at David.Hookstead@outkick.com, and definitely take care of your bartenders.