People are being asked to tip more often and in higher amounts than ever before, and surveys show many Americans are fed up. One survey found that nearly two-thirds of Americans feel “tip fatigue,” and most respondents said they would rather pay higher prices than deal with tipping.
Tipping is supposed to be simple. You pay for something and add extra money for the worker who helped you. But what happens when there is no worker at all? According to BroBible, a TikTok video by Alexis Rose shows a man at an airport self-checkout machine holding a single orange.
He scans the orange, priced at $1.69. The total jumps to $2.04 because the machine automatically adds an 18% tip. Although the man can choose a 0% tip, the 18% option is already selected. He complains that older shoppers might not notice the automatic tip and end up paying extra without realizing it.
Self-checkout tips may not even go to workers
A bigger concern is that tips collected at self-checkout machines might never reach employees. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act protects workers who receive tips, but self-checkout machines are not employees, so those protections do not apply. Airports have increasingly become places where travelers encounter unexpected and frustrating situations.
Holona Ochs, a professor at Lehigh University, said companies may use tipping at self-checkout to increase their own profits by taking advantage of people’s habit of tipping.
Some businesses claim they still share self-checkout tips with staff, even though they are not required to do so. The machine shown in the video appears to belong to OTG. An OTG spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that the company pools all tips and distributes them among employees working that shift.
Data shows that tip requests are appearing at more self-checkout stations, even as surveys show customers strongly dislike them, especially when no human assistance is involved. A 2023 PYMNTS study found that 75% of people believe asking for tips at self-checkout is wrong, yet many still end up paying.
Another 2023 study found that more than a quarter of people had been asked to tip at self-checkout at least once. A 2025 Bankrate study reported that about 4 in 10 Americans feel annoyed by automatic tipping screens, and roughly 27% said they tip less or not at all when a tip is pre-selected.
Airport travelers have shared other strange experiences beyond tipping issues. In the video’s comments, viewers expressed frustration and disbelief. One person asked how this practice is legal. Another questioned why anyone should tip themselves for doing the work. A third said a gas station self-scanner offered preset tip options of $2, $4, and $5.
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