Chicago Is Most Generous City for Tips in the U.S.

What's This?

New data from Square found Chicago to be America's most generous city when it comes to tips.

Image: Flickr, Jamie McCaffrey

By Kurt Wagner2014-02-28 04:00:34 UTC

Chicago is known for many things: hearty deep-dish pizza, great blues music, and the longest World Series drought in Major League Baseball (sorry, Cubs fans).

Now you can add another title to that list —generous tippers.

See also: 9 Things You Would Immediately Fail Without Your Smartphone

Data pulled by payments company Square found that Chicagoans tip more often than any other major city studied. In Chicago, customers tip 63% of the time with the average tip at 16.7%, roughly twice the 9.25% sales tax rate.

Denver and Austin, Texas, were tied for second with 62% of customers tipping, and Denver residents actually tipped the highest percentage of any city studied — 16.8%.

Atlanta and Tampa finished last in the list, with just 51% of customers leaving a tip.

Square studied the way its users tip in 10 major U.S. cities and found Chicago to be the most generous city in America.

Square examined 10 major metropolitan cities around the U.S. for the study, taking into account population and "density of Square sellers," according to a company spokesperson. The cities are all located in different states with the exception of Los Angeles and San Francisco, and generate "hundreds of thousands of payments and millions of dollars in payment volume."

Square has recently added features to its consumer products in a bid to encourage consumers to use Square for their daily transactions. Square Cash was updated so that users can now charge one another through the app or through email. The company is also testing a new mobile app called Pickup for restaurant takeout orders.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Topics: Business, Chicago, generous, Small Business, Square, square wallet, U.S.