tip creep
n. The gradual increase in the standard tip percentage as well as the number of service workers who expect or request tips.
Examples
2016
Part of the reason for the general acquiescence to tip creep may be that Square is mostly a feature at high-end hipster shops — places that peddle what some might call "treats" and others might deride as "inessentials."
—Ester Bloom, “Square is guilting us into tipping basically everyone,” Quartz, July 13, 2016
2015
American consumers are feeling a bit of tip creep.

Leaving 15 percent for full service (the former standard tip at a sit-down restaurant), and less for quick transactions, is considered chintzy by some people. “We recommend 20 percent absolutely,” said Peter Post, managing director of the Emily Post Institute, which offers guidelines in etiquette.
—Hilary Stout, “$3 Tip on a $4 Cup of Coffee? Gratuities Grow, Automatically,” The New York Times, January 31, 2015
2012
Consumer experts agree the average New Yorker is being besieged by an ever-growing number of service workers who are after an ever-growing slice of their spending money. Not only are there more hands reaching into your pocket, they’re expecting more: "Suggested" gratuities can run to 25 or even 30 percent, a number that might have been laughed off just a few years ago.

All this inflation is creating an epidemic of what author Steve Dublanica calls "tip creep."
—Chris Erikson, “Tipping the scales,” New York Post, September 19, 2012
1999 (earliest)
A decent tip for a waitron used to be 10% then it was 15%, now it's edging up to 18%. (And I could start a whole rant about "automatic" tips.) The service hasn't changed. Why…are we experiencing "tip creep"?
—Steven S. Scheer, “Tips for Practically Everything!,” alt.fan.cecil-adams, March 20, 1999
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