Should You Tip House Painters?
Here’s a question you may not hear often: should you tip house painters?
Yeah, sounds weird, but surely you’ve tipped before. If you think about it, a house painter counts as a service professional, and they usually get a tip for a job well done. Examples of service professionals include wait staff, hairdressers, and manicurists. These types of people expect a tip because they performed a service for you. Tipping is just a way to say thank you for a job well done. That’s not to say that you should feel obligated to tip someone just because they make a low income. There are some businesses that pay pretty fair wages and even factor in gratuity for their staff.
Why You Would Want to Tip Your House Painter
You might want to tip someone to show that you appreciate what a good job they did to your house or as a bonus. Maybe they went above and beyond, helping out with something other than painting your house, or finished the job ahead of schedule. Some people like to be generous, especially around the holidays when they’re in a more giving mood.
Aside from being generous, you may want to tip the worker for a job well done and in case you want them back for future projects. Maybe your house painter is a contractor from one of the local painting companies in TX, or wherever you are, or has really good connections to other service providers you want to work with. You’d want to tip them so that when you hire them again, you’ll be confident that they do a good job. Or they can give you some good referrals for other service providers and those people will probably do a good job, all because you tipped well.
A Guideline to Tipping
The general rule of thumb is to tip around 15% to 20% for service professionals. While I think that is quite high, it is the industry standard. If this does not work for you or amounts to hundreds of extra money, you can most certainly tip less. You can even tip a fixed amount that makes sense for you.
If you don’t want to give money, you can show appreciation in other ways. You can do this by preparing or purchasing meals for the workers, or other small gifts of appreciation.
Why You Wouldn’t Want to Tip
While tipping can be great, it might not always be a good idea. For one, some service providers are forbidden to receive tips. Some contracting companies see tipping as a sort of bribe or incentive for the service provider and as a way to not pay the company. It may also count as extra income that the house painter has to declare on their taxes, which could complicate things.
Hopefully, the above tips will help you decide the answer to the question “do you tip house painters?”
3 thoughts on “Should You Tip House Painters?”
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Hey !
Just found your blog – loved it.
Keep em coming.
Wish you all the best.
Ben
Your tipping advise is totally off. Tipping 15% to house painters?? We just paid $18000 to have the house painted inside & out. The owner put 4 onsite workers on the job. I am going to tip the workers a couple hundred each. Your 15% advise would amount to $3600. What are you thinking? Am I being cheap?
Not cheap at all. Those men are working for a living wage. Does your boss tip you when you finish an assignment? I don’t think so.