I get it, Boston, you really don’t have to explain yourself to me. The weather this time of year, in the height of rental season, is swampy to say the least and the worst kind of climate in which to move to your new apartment. So, naturally, you’ve hired a moving company to do all of the heavy lifting for you.

Last year I was naive enough to think that I could easily transition from one living space to the other in a single day without the help of any outside assistance. It turned out to be one of the hotter days of the year and I payed the price in half my weight in sweat and the inability to remove myself from the couch for subsequent days on end.

Bet your ass I won’t be making that mistake again.

Hiring movers is a pretty straightforward process. Just box up your goodies, organize them efficiently and let the movers do what they do best … carry heavy packages of junk in soupy humidity.

But once the deed is done and your household items are situated in your new abode, the question remains: how much do you tip your movers?

Unlike some tipped-wage professions, like in the food service industry where 20 percent gratuity is the over-under benchmark, moving doesn’t have a real standard for the practice.

So to find out what’s truly appropriate, I put out the call on Reddit.

The general consensus is that tipping movers boils down to the fundamental point of tipping in the first place: performance – speed, efficiency, quality and care. If your movers do a good job, throw down a few extra bucks. If they make off with all of your items, well, you’re shit out of luck.

There are plenty of other variables to consider as well, though. If the weather is so humid you can feel water vapor forming on the palm of your hands while you watch the thermometer creep into the 90-degree range, at least offer your movers a cool beverage, especially if you’re as cheap as Steve Buscemi in the opening scene of Reservoir Dogs. 

As far as hard numbers go, you’ll notice in the Reddit comments below the general tip range is between $10 and $40 per mover. As Redditor elToribio puts it so eloquently, “There is a reason you don’t want to do the job yourself.”

That being said, always remember that tipping isn’t mandatory. Your best judgement applies here.

But perhaps you have a different perspective on how much extra movers deserve, regardless of outside factors and cultural norms. Feel free to share your own thoughts and knowledge on the matter in the comments section below.

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