Angie's List | How to tip a contractor

Who and how much to tip is a question that many homeowners wrestle with.

To help answer it, Angie’s List recently polled nearly 5,000 home service professionals across the U.S. to find out if they expect a tip and if so, what they tend to collect.

What we found are services that a more personal, house cleaners, for example, even movers tend to tipped, while general contractors, plumbers, and electricians usually don’t.

According to the nationwide Angie’s List poll:

• Movers, haulers, house cleaners and pet sitters are the most-commonly tipped service professionals.
• Contractors like plumbers, roofers and electricians, say they rarely receive gratuities.
• When tradespeople do get a tip, cash is the most-common gratuity offered followed by food or beverages on the job, and personalized gifts or gift cards. Most cash tips were less than 20 percent of the total cost of the job.
• Most contractors in the survey say they charge their clients what they feel is fair price for the work being done and don’t expect a tip. Some even forbid their employees from accepting tips.

Angie’s List Tips for Tipping Contractors:

• Ask the company: If you are considering giving a tip to the crew, talk first to the owner of the company to determine if tips are allowed. Some companies forbid their employees from accepting tips and you don’t want to put the workers in a difficult situation.
• How much to tip? Gratuity should depend on a number of factors such as quality of service, how long you’ve used the service and your budget. If money is tight, bake a sweet treat in lieu of cash.
• Praise their work: No consumer should ever feel obligated to tip, but if you feel strongly about the work, you could reward that service by spreading the word. Writing a letter or posting a positive online review can have a bigger impact for that person and could even help encourage a raise or a promotion.

“If cash isn’t in your budget for tipping, consider alternatives if you get great service. Have lunch for your movers, have drinks available. Also a letter to the company can be worth a ton more than cash if the person ends up getting a promotion or a raise,” suggests Angie Hicks.

Remodeling Contractor Geoff Horen says, “On occasion we are in the homes of our clients many months and we have guys on staff that work for us. Where I see it are going to be in cases where one of our guys say, “hey Mrs. Jones gave me twenty dollars today,” or Mr. Smith said “Hey, Cokes are in the fridge and whatever you guys want throughout the day make yourselves at home and feel free.” So sometimes it’s a direct tip and sometimes it’s just those nice offers and thoughts.”

Geoff adds, “We also get letters from clients very often telling us what a good job our guys have done or a group of guys have done in addition to the Angie’s List reports that they submit that’s also a very nice thing. Because we can take that and put that in front of clients who are asking about do you sub out or do you have on staff. We have people on staff and here are some of the things that people say about them.”