Many people have heard tipping is not a city in China.

Lets face it tips vary, and many people are not familiar with all occupations where tipping occurs. Massage and Spa services are generally tip based. If you consider your session a medical procedure, please request the medical price, and not tipping would be the norm.

Weather you get a service for full or discounted price, the general accepted practice is to tip based on the full price. Sometimes this is the only money the therapist gets. Even if they own there own business, they don’t have the benefit of a dozen employees helping pay there bills, and if they share a space, they may pay a percentage to the facility based on the full rate.

Typical tips range from $5-35 or more. (Generally 15-35%)

Yes some people tip $0-4, but general practice is to include something more unless it is a chair massage.

• Chair massage: $1-20 (Typical tip) – Typical cost is $10-25 for 10-20 minutes.
  • Sometimes the cost is hidden because it is paid for by a sponsor such as an employer. It is good to verify weather the service includes a tip.
  • Sometimes the cost is hidden because of legal requirements for doing an on-site massage at a particular location. In these cases, if you get a good massage, include the typical cost and tip in the tip in what you give.
• A one hour massage priced ~$75-85 generally gets a 15-35% tip. If the client is paying cash, they often just round up to $80, $100 or throw an even $20 or 25% on there credit card.
• The ninety minute session follows similar rules of thumb. A typical post tip rate is $120-140 ($15-35 tip)
• These are just typical mid-range rates. If you feel they did a great job, give more. If you feel the session could have been improved, let them know so your next one can be better.
•  YOUR THERAPIST WILL BE GLAD AND APPRECIATE EVEN A 15-20% TIP even If you can only throw down $5-10 they will be thankful.

Another thing to consider when you are tipping is that a therapist can only give a maximum of 20 hours of massage a week, and is rarely at capacity due to scheduling issues

As stated above, the rate paid is not going directly to the therapist. Typically 50% of the full price goes to overhead, and they are still responsible for the employers half of the taxes and insurance.