Tipping requests have gotten out of control, but the percent has gone up because inflation happened.
That makes no sense. Inflation also increases the price of the goods and services. Tipping the same percentage means it scales with that inflation 1:1. The only way that would make sense is if, say, food had been somewhat resistant to inflationary pressures, but the restaurant owner wanted to make sure that their personnel were getting paid more to cover other costs of living that were affected more by inflation. But that is not the case. This new standard is across the board on every card reader for every business type I have seen. Restaurant, gas stations, mechanics, electronics, etc. That isn't how this works.