Michigan diners are landing almost right on the national mark when they tap that tip button. On card and digital payments, the average tip in the state clocks in at about 19.9%, putting Michigan comfortably in the middle of the pack. That keeps local tipping close to the national full-service average, even as the state's tipped minimum wage, now $5.49 an hour, reshapes the math behind every shift.
Where Michigan Lands In The National Snapshot
According to Toast, its Restaurant Trends Report pegged Michigan's average tip at 19.9% and found full-service restaurant tips averaged 19.2% nationwide in Q4 2025. The company says the figures come from transactions at restaurants using its point-of-sale platform and include only tips added via card or digital payments. In that same snapshot, Delaware, West Virginia and New Hampshire show up among the country's most generous tippers, while California, Washington, D.C., and Washington state sit near the bottom.
What The Numbers Leave Out
Axios Detroit points out a big blind spot in those figures: Toast's report ignores cash tips entirely. That means overall gratuities are likely higher in places where customers still reach for bills instead of buttons. The Axios piece also notes that the analysis covers only restaurants that use the Toast platform and have tipping enabled, which tilts the sample toward venues that accept and encourage digital payment prompts. In other words, the numbers are helpful for spotting trends, but they do not capture every server's pocketbook.
Wage Change Adds Context
Michigan's Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity recorded a scheduled increase that raised the state's full minimum wage to $13.73 and the tipped minimum to $5.49 on Jan. 1, 2026, about 40% of the base wage. Michigan LEO notes that employers are on the hook to ensure tipped employees actually reach the full minimum if tips do not make up the difference. That legal backdrop has helped fuel a broader debate in Lansing about whether higher base pay will eventually change tipping culture.
What It Means For Servers And Restaurants
Because Toast's data covers card and digital tips only, it may undercount total tip income in cash-heavy dining rooms and may overrepresent restaurants that use default, higher suggested-tip prompts on screens. Toast stresses that the report is simply a snapshot of transactions where tipping was enabled on its platform. For managers and policymakers reading between the lines, the early takeaway is that raising the tipped wage has not produced an obvious drop in digital tipping across this broad sample of restaurants.
Policy Fight Brewing In Lansing
Lawmakers and advocates in Lansing have grabbed onto these numbers as they argue over how quickly to raise wages in the future and what to do with the tip credit. Bridge Michigan reported testimony that tipping behavior tends to hover near the national average in states that restrict or scrap tip credits, a point officials regularly cite when weighing their options. The data does not settle the fight, but it gives both sides fresh ammunition.
Bottom line: on card and digital payments, Michigan diners are tipping in line with national norms, not out on any extreme. For the full state-by-state breakdown and a closer local look, see Axios Detroit.
