NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A new study by Toast shows how much the typical Tennessean tips at restaurants.

According to the report, in the first quarter of 2025, Tennesseans tip 19.4% on average at full-service restaurants, which is the same as the national average.

However, some servers on Broadway said the data doesn’t capture the full picture of tipping behavior and etiquette.

"A lot of times you get nothing, and it really sucks. Sometimes you'll get someone really generous. It's all over the place. There's not really a middle ground, honestly,” Zack Triveline, a downtown Nashville bartender, told News 2.

In Tennessee, the minimum cash wage for tipped employees is only $2.13 as long as employees reach the federal minimum wage in tips.

"I was a waitress one time back in college, so I know it's hard to make a living being a waitress, so we'll give them more [than 20%] if they're really good,” Lynne King, a tourist visiting Nashville from Atlanta, told News 2.

Some bartenders on Broadway said there are often cases where people leave no tip at all.

"We have three flights of stairs here," Triveline added. "Our kitchen is on the second floor. I'm running food from the second floor to the first floor, second floor to the first floor. Sometimes I'm on the third floor having to run it down to the first floor. A lot of people don't see that. They see, 'Oh, all he did was open a beer for me."

He said good tippers make up the difference.

"It shows your appreciation for the person that waited on you, and they deserve to be compensated well,” Rich Barrett, a tourist visiting Broadway in Nashville, said.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/nashville/report-tennesseans-tip-19-4-on-average-broadway-servers-say-data-doesnt-show-full-story/