Mandatory 25% tip: Fair?

[nawainwright]

San Francisco Restaurants Want To Make 25% Standard Tip Rate « CBS San Francisco

I know its San Fran, I know what most people here will say, but who doesn't love to stir the pot?

 

[45calibre]

i think thats too much especially because it'll be mandatory. so even if you get bad service you still gotta pay up.

 

[Scutter01]

How about we do away with gratuity altogether and just pay servers a living wage?

 

[GBuck]

How about we do away with gratuity altogether and just pay servers a living wage?

+1

 

[GBuck]

The thing is, I hate it when places take a mandatory tip, and a lot of times with me they end up screwing the waiter. If I have good service I regularly tip higher than the 18% most places add. As soon as I see that they have taken a mandatory tip, I refuse to add to it.

 

[eldirector]

I don't tip 25% the way it is. Mandatory? I'll pass, thanks.

BTW: it is the WORKERS, not the restaurants, who are pushing this. More folks with their hands out. You want a 25% tip? EARN it through Exemplary service. You want to make more money in general? Ask for a raise to your base pay. If you are WORTH it you will GET it.

Why is this so hard for folks to grasp?

 

[spasmo]

I despise mandatory tipping. I normally tip 20% and if you add 18% gratuity to my bill automatically then I will NOT give more than that 18%. I don't mind them putting a little chart at the bottom of what a certain percentage of a tip is. I actually find that helpful. I will not go back to Woody's Library Restaurant in Carmel mostly for that reason (although I wasn't that impressed with the food). For large parties, I can understand. Once again though, they should only receive a tip if the service was good.

 

[spasmo]

How about we do away with gratuity altogether and just pay servers a living wage?

+1

 

[GBuck]

I despise mandatory tipping. I normally tip 20% and if you add 18% gratuity to my bill automatically then I will NOT give more than that 18%. I don't mind them putting a little chart at the bottom of what a certain percentage of a tip is. I actually find that helpful. I will not go back to Woody's Library Restaurant in Carmel mostly for that reason (although I wasn't that impressed with the food). For large parties, I can understand. Once again though, they should only receive a tip if the service was good.

The large parties thing is what really gets me, because the service almost always SUCKS when you have a large party. If you still want a big tip, do good work, or bring in another server to assist you and split the tip. The bill will be big enough anyways for you to split a good tip.

 

[sadclownwp]

My aunt once had a tip automatically added onto a bill she was picking up for my uncles birthday at Chilis. She is a calculus teacher and always carries around calculator. She figured out they put an 18% charge on and we all had bad service, had to wait 40 minutes to order, drinks empty for 15 to 20 minutes that sort of thing. She called the manager out, he said it was standard for tables over 6 people. Then she asked for the district number. Called, and talked to the District Manager, after that, the meal was free, there was no tip, and she got a 25 dollar gift certificate on top of that.

Adding on tips automatically is not right.

 

[GBuck]

My aunt once had a tip automatically added onto a bill she was picking up for my uncles birthday at Chilis. She is a calculus teacher and always carries around calculator. She figured out they put an 18% charge on and we all had bad service, had to wait 40 minutes to order, drinks empty for 15 to 20 minutes that sort of thing. She called the manager out, he said it was standard for tables over 6 people. Then she asked for the district number. Called, and talked to the District Manager, after that, the meal was free, there was no tip, and she got a 25 dollar gift certificate on top of that.

Adding on tips automatically is not right.

All I got from that was that a calc. teacher needed a calculator to figure out what percentage gratuity she was being charged.

 

[sadclownwp]

I believe it was mostly so she could show the manager that she was getting screwed, but I could be wrong. It is not like calculus is hard, anyone with even the most basic degree in astro physics could do it in there heads, lol.

 

[jsharmon7]

How about we do away with gratuity altogether and just pay servers a living wage?

This is the best solution. The problem is the folks out there who either don't tip, or leave a dollar. The staff is already being paid next to nothing and a lot of times expected to share tips with other staff members like servers and hostesses. These places are now trying to force customers to pay their staffs' wages. I was under the impression that the idea of a gratuity is to reward someone for service above and beyond the norm, not a mandatory expectation added to the bill. It drove me nuts out in Las Vegas when fast food type places had tip jars out. What exactly did you do extra for me besides put my hamburger on the tray?

By the way, I've never worked in the food industry so maybe there is more to it than what I've been told.

 

[Scutter01]

Working in the food service industry is a giant pain. It's a lot of hard work for very low pay. Unless you're lucky enough to work in a high-end restaurant where the checks are >$200, or you have big boobs and are willing to flirt, you're getting paid almost nothing. I was a bus boy, way back when, and we got a measely 10% of whatever tip was left. That means on a $10 lunch, we'd get 20 cents that we had to split four ways (with the other bus boys) and we worked just as hard as the wait staff, and that's assuming the wait staff bothered to share their tip with us instead of just pocketing it and claiming they got stiffed. Most of the time, I was LUCKY to be making minimum wage. When the minimum wage was $3.35/hr, I was making around $2.75 ($2.52 plus what I laughingly call "tips").

Yeah, food service is brutal. However, none of that excuses incompetence. If you can't be attentive to your customers and actually do your job well, then find another line of work. I have no problem whatsoever leaving a tip (often a BIG tip) for adequate service, but I refuse to reward you just for showing up.

Eliminate tips, pay workers a living wage, and let the management decide who's pulling their weight and fire the ones who aren't.

 

[riverman67]

This is the best solution. The problem is the folks out there who either don't tip, or leave a dollar. The staff is already being paid next to nothing and a lot of times expected to share tips with other staff members like servers and hostesses. These places are now trying to force customers to pay their staffs' wages. I was under the impression that the idea of a gratuity is to reward someone for service above and beyond the norm, not a mandatory expectation added to the bill. It drove me nuts out in Las Vegas when fast food type places had tip jars out. What exactly did you do extra for me besides put my hamburger on the tray?

By the way, I've never worked in the food industry so maybe there is more to it than what I've been told.

I agree completely,
I'm not sure when or why the rules about paying servers came to be but they are asinine. When employers are allowed to pay less than the minimum required by law for any other occupation it just doesn't make sense. I would rather pay more for more meal and know that the people preparing and serving it were making a fair wage for their labor. I would still tip for good service,but I wouldn't feel obligated to do so if the service was sub-par.
I will never eat in an establishment that adds a tip to my bill for any reason,large parties excepted.

 

[Bunnykid68]

They still pay servers like $2.13 an hour don't they?

If those servers got their 25% tips like they want they still wouldn't be happy. There would be a paper trail from the tips being automatic and they would have to claim them all on their tax return

 

[Scutter01]

They still pay servers like $2.13 an hour don't they?

If those servers got their 25% tips like they want they still wouldn't be happy. There would be a paper trail from the tips being automatic and they would have to claim them all on their tax return

Yeah, it's $2.13/hour and the employer is supposed to make up the difference if the tips don't bring them up to minimum wage. I can tell you that that never happens.

 

[sadclownwp]

In indiana if the employers claim a credit against tips, which is how they get off paying less than minimum wage, they must compensate by law if less than minimum wage is being made. So if they are only making lets say $3.00 an hour, and they work 8 hours, and only make $24, and only get $20 in tips all day, bringing there total to $44, then the employer must make up the difference on there pay check to bring them up to the $58 they would have made making minimum wage.

Most employers of those that make tips hate for them to know that, but it is true. The reversal of the situation is that most waitresses hate telling there boss what they made because it is more in taxes for them. It is kind of a don't ask, don't tell thing.

Anyway long story short, everyone in food services makes at least minimum wage if they know their rights.

 

[Marc]

my brother in law went on a cruise and they had a 30% mandatory gratuity and when he ordered something they stood there waiting for him to tip them. when the roomservice guy asked him why no tip my brother in law showed him the receipt and pointed at the mandatory gratuity and said "thats why".

 

[femurphy77]

Mandatory gratuity in restaurantese translates to I don't do business with you in femurphy77ese!