Horrible tippers live in expensive neighborhoods, study finds

“Living in a more expensive neighborhood does not mean New Yorkers are more generous with tips. In fact, when we compared median asking rent and median tipping percentage across New York’s neighborhoods, we found that the higher a neighborhood’s rent, the less residents tend to tip,” StreetEasy wrote in a blog post.

Among the worst tipping neighborhoods was the pricey Carnegie Hill on the Upper East Side which according to the study, tipped on average just 12.3 percent.

This paled in comparison with Greenpoint, Brooklyn, which had an average tip of 15.3 percent, which StreetEasy points out, is the highest tipping average in the city.

Now this might not be because people who live in expensive areas are selfish or bad people. As StreetEasy points out, it could have something to do with those living in expensive areas have a budget burdened by expensive rents.

“The greater the rent burden in a particular neighborhood, the lower the tip amount as well. Using the rent-to-income ratio for each neighborhood, we found that less affordable neighborhoods tend to tip less. For example, renters in Brooklyn Heights have a relatively low rent burden of 30 percent (meaning 30 percent of the typical household’s annual income in 2014 was spent on rent there), yet the typical tip percentage was 14 percent. In Elmhurst, where the rent-to-income ratio is 42 percent (considerably less affordable renters than Brooklyn Heights), the typical tip percentage was just 13.1 percent,” StreetEasy explained.

Which neigbhorhoods had the best tippers?