“Don’t ask your friends to help you move” seems to have become a popular refrain on social media over the last few years, and the gig economy has made it easier than ever to outsource physical tasks to contract workers via apps like TaskRabbit, DoorDash, and Instacart.
As an adult, don’t ask your friends to help you move.
— Cathryn (@cathrynlavery) January 15, 2023
Hire movers, save a friendship. pic.twitter.com/2rOvXsSfnE
And while the above statement smells of privilege and class obliviousness — those with limited financial resources have always subsisted in the face of adversity by means of voluntary mutual aid — many people do prefer to simplify moving day by hiring professionals to tote their belongings from A to B.
For those who can afford it, hiring professional movers saves time, hassle, physical strain, and the unintended damage to furniture and other belongings that so often results from ill-planned DIY moving efforts.
Are you supposed to tip movers?
Being a professional mover is a demanding occupation, both physically and logistically. It’s like playing real-life Tetris but in three dimensions with real 50+ pound blocks, and those who do it save their clients a great deal of stress. So, as is usually the case with service providers, tipping movers is good etiquette and standard practice.
Related: How much to tip in 30 countries
Due to their unfortunate relegation to the realm of “unskilled labor,” moving jobs don’t always pay a living wage (Talent.com pegs movers’ national average wage at $16.40 per hour, while ZipRecruiter says $17). That’s why tipping movers (and other hourly service workers) is so important.
But just how much should you tip your movers? Should you tip them based on what you are charged, how many hours they work, or some other metric?
Here's a quick guide to tipping movers:
- By percentage: 15–25% (based on service, difficulty, and weather)
- By individual mover: $5–10 per hour worked (based on service, difficulty, and weather)
When tipping movers (as with tipping servers, delivery people, drivers, tattoo artists, and most other service providers) the most commonly cited rule of thumb in the U.S. is to dole out 15–25% of the total on your bill, with 20% being standard for reasonably good service. This go-to practice is definitely the simplest way to handle tipping your movers, especially if you are paying and tipping via an app or online.
Should you tip each mover separately? By the hour?
If you can, however, tipping each mover individually is preferable to relying on a digital system or a shift manager to divide gratuity appropriately among workers. In most cases, more than one mover is involved in the job, and when it comes to hard physical labor like moving, tipping by the hour can sometimes be a more thoughtful approach than tipping based on your total bill.
If you choose to tip by the hour, $5 per mover per hour worked is a solid baseline. If your movers go above and beyond, have to navigate unexpected difficulties, or work in inclement weather, bumping this up to anywhere between $6 and $9 per hour might be warranted (and would certainly be appreciated).
Let’s say two movers took care of your job in about half a day (approximately four hours). Using this protocol, you might tip them $6 per hour, which would come to $24 each, totaling $48 out of your pocket for the tip overall.
It’s also important to remember that you may need to adjust these estimates depending on where you live. In densely populated urban areas like New York, Seattle, and San Francisco, the cost of living is very high, and tips should reflect this, especially if they are coming from someone with the financial means to spare an extra dollar or two per hour worked.
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Should you tip movers in cash?
Ask any tipped worker, regardless of occupation — cash is almost always preferred. These days, tips are often accepted online or via the app through which a client books a service, but digital tips can take a while to pay out, so cash up front is always appreciated, as it can be used right away.
This is often an important consideration for hourly service workers, as the bulk of an upcoming paycheck may already be slated toward rent and automatic bill payments, so cash tips can allow an individual to have a safety net on hand for day-to-day purchases and unexpected expenses.
Additionally, some gig-work apps like DoorDash have come under fire in the past for using customer tips to meet guaranteed payouts for jobs rather than passing them on to the workers on top of the guaranteed minimum, as most customers would expect. By tipping in cash, customers ensure that gig workers’ employers are forced to pay out the per-job minimum and that all tips received are actually paid out as tips.
Additionally, tips conferred digitally are automatically tracked and taxed as tip income, whereas cash tips leave the task of tip-income reporting in the hands of the worker, and workers having more agency is always a good thing.
Do you tip movers when they pick up or drop off?
While tipping movers is standard practice regardless of the client’s perception of the movers’ performance, the size of the tip may be adjusted based on the quality of service. For this reason, with movers, as with servers at a restaurant, the tip is typically provided at the end of the process.
When it comes to moving, this usually means after all of your belongings have been transported and brought into your new home.
How much should you tip long-distance movers?
Since tipping on an hourly or per-person basis can get complicated when it comes to long-haul moves, tipping by percentage is probably the most common convention here, and the 15–25% standard range is a good starting point. Again, tipping each mover separately and in cash is always appreciated when possible.
Why you should always tip your movers
It can be incredibly tough to get by financially while working an hourly service job, especially when living in an expensive city, and appropriate tips from clients can go a long way in helping the essential workers that keep these cities functional make ends meet. And while the responsibility to make up for service-based businesses underpaying their workers probably shouldn’t fall onto those businesses’ customers, that is the unfortunate reality in most American cities.
