Expert Guide: Should You Tip Owners?

We’ve all been there: You’re getting a haircut or buying a coffee when you realize the person serving you is also the owner of the establishment. The transaction grows tense as you fumble with your wallet — should you still leave a tip?

For decades, social customs suggested no.

“It was a traditional etiquette and still is a traditional etiquette,” explains Daniel Post Senning, coauthor of Emily Post’s Etiquette, The Centennial Edition.

---

Must Read

• Meet your financial goals faster: Take this free, no-obligation quiz to get matched with an advisor today.
• You’re probably eligible to save money on car insurance. Compare rates for your ZIP code with this free — and fast — tool from Money.
• Investors have historically used gold to hedge against inflation — and that trend still continues today. Get in on the action with an American Hartford Gold’s free guide.

---

Senning is the great-great-grandson of Emily Post, who published a bestselling etiquette text in 1922 and was a leading source for manners advice in the 20th century. In the past, “there was the potential for a tipping or a gratuity to be offensive,” Senning says, because tipping was associated with service workers rather than salaried professionals.

By not leaving a tip, patrons were actually respecting their service provider’s “status” as a business owner, he says.

But tipping norms have shifted in the 21st century. We’re in a new world of swiveling iPad tip screens, Venmo-barcode tip jars and “it’s going to ask you a question.” Tips are everywhere — to the point that an overwhelming majority of customers are feeling tipping fatigue.

So does the old rule that you don’t tip the owner still hold up in 2026?

Tipping etiquette: What to leave for owners

A seemingly endless number of rules and customs surround tipping in the U.S. Love it or hate it, it’s important to know your way around the system.

The Emily Post Institute advises that tipping is not optional when dining out: It’s good manners to leave at least a 15% tip. A tip of up to 20% is typical, even for standard service. These norms for restaurant workers are based on the “assumption that they receive a tip on each customer’s bill to balance their total take-home pay,” the Centennial Edition reads. (The federal tipped minimum wage is $2.13 per hour.)

The etiquette guidebook is less rigid about tipping elsewhere. A 15% to 20% tip is usually recommended for personal services such as hair, nails and massages. For your barista, tips are “discretionary” and “change for the tip jar or $1 or $2 is fine.” At the bar, it’s safe to tip $1 to $2 per drink, or 10% to 20%.

But these rules are trickier to follow when an establishment’s owner is the one serving you.

The Emily Post Institute finds that most owners who work in a service capacity today are comfortable accepting tips. That doesn’t necessarily negate the old etiquette, though, and many customers still live by the old rule, skipping tipping in settings where they otherwise would if an employee provided the service.

Some feel strongly that tipping expectations have gone too far.

“I’m sorry, but when you are a stylist, or a barber, or a nail tech, you set your price, so your price should be set in such a way that even if you don’t get a tip… you feel like you’ve been justly compensated for your time, your expertise and your supplies,” Quentin Latham, a YouTuber and self-described urban pop culture critic, said in a recent video.

Latham pointed out that most people don’t tip car mechanics, roofers, HVAC repair people or gardeners, who also provide services. He said tips should be reserved for “hospitality.”

‘My tips are my pay,’ salon owner says

Senning says his family’s institute has been fielding versions of this question for the 20 years he’s worked there. Most often, the debate comes up in the context of hair salons, where owners often work behind the chair and sometimes charge the highest rate on the staff to account for their experience.

Andrea Andrews, owner of Hearts & Hair, a salon in Fort Collins, Colorado, says she doesn’t receive as many tips as her employees do. She rejects the idea that skipping a tip honors a proprietor’s status.

“I think a tip is a sign of respect in today’s day and age,” Andrews tells Money. “A tip is never expected, but it’s definitely a form of appreciation — that you really respect this hairdresser or even a barista for what they’ve invested in their time and their energy.”

Being a small business owner doesn’t mean you’re rich, she adds. When Andrews opened her salon in 2008, she lived out of the break room because she had no money for housing.

Starting a salon is a risk and often follows years of training or education, all of which have costs. That’s why Andrews argues that, if anything, owner-operators should be tipped more than regular service workers.

Take the person who does her eyelashes, for example: “She’s the business owner, so she’s taking 100% of the expense cost and the risk and everything,” Andrews said in an Instagram post. “So I’m going to tip her more than I would just a regular service provider, because they’re guaranteed their hourly wages.”

While small business owners typically earn more money than employees, their personal finances are more volatile. Owners are almost twice as likely to say their income fluctuates monthly than non-owners, and they’re more likely to overdraft their checking accounts three or more times per year, according to a 2025 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report.

Owners have to pay their staffs and cover insurance, rent, supplies, taxes and more, Andrews says. Sometimes, they are the last ones to get paid.

“I don’t pay myself an hourly wage. So when I get tips, I take that home. That’s my pay — my tips are pay,” she says.

This is where your decision to tip or not may come down to what kind of owner is serving you. Someone running a salon with a dozen stylists is likely in a different financial position than a one- or two-person store.

Ultimately, there’s no right or uniform answer. If you want to leave a tip and you’re unsure how it would come across, Senning recommends just asking. It doesn’t have to be awkward, and you can even give context.

“I’m aware you own this shop. You do such a great job here,” you could say. “I started to wonder the other day: Are you comfortable accepting a tip?”

---

Never miss a Money story.

• Join 700,000+ readers who get the latest financial news and advice delivered daily inbox for free. Subscribe to our newsletters.

---