If you employ movers, the chances are good that they saved you from doing a lot of the heavy lifting during your move. They might spend hours moving your furniture up multiple flights of stairs. They might help pack up your boxes in order to make sure that everything has been secured and will not be broken during transit. 

Even though you are paying your movers for their time and effort, you might feel like you should tip them because they are providing you with a personal service in the same manner that a person cutting your hair or driving you from the airport to your hotel is performing a personal service. However, you probably don't know how much to tip, or even if you should tip in the first place. Here are some general guidelines regarding tipping your movers.

1. Tip if You Feel Comfortable

If the movers did a great job, then you should feel free to tip them. They are not going to refuse the tip unless it is part of their company's policy to not allow tipping and will definitely appreciate it. If you tip one sum to one of the movers, you can feel secure knowing that the movers will split it up equally. If you want to save them the trouble, you can give each individual mover a tip.

If you don't want to tip the movers due to finances or because they did a job whose quality was beneath what you were expecting, then you should not feel like you have to tip. Most movers are not going to hang around after the job waiting for a tip. Tips are not usually expected, especially from younger people who the movers will assume do not have a lot of money. Larger companies will usually tip.

2. Tip Around Five Percent

A good estimate of the amount that you should tip movers is around five percent of the total cost of the job. Feel free to round the amount that you are tipping so that it is a round number in order to make paying the tip easier for you. If you feel that one of the movers did much more work than the other mover, split up the total amount and give the mover that did more work a slightly larger share of the tip.

3. Don't Tip Alcohol

Another common action is for people to tip with baked goods and other edibles. These are often appreciated by movers, especially when they are in addition to cash. However, you cannot tip alcohol because it is prohibited by most moving companies.

For more information, talk to a moving company like A-1 America's Best Moving. You will be able to get their specific tipping guidelines.