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Increase the price of everything and pay a life supporting amount of money per hour of work. No tipping, no more service charge.
This service charge is literally the same but blaming the employees.
Add to the fact all the food in the restaurant is much higher in caloric intake, sodium and sugar than any meal you could prepare at home. You get to have some wonderful heart disease with a side of stress. Hardly worth going out to restaurants anymore.
That’s the whole point of going to a restaurant. So you can convince yourself that the food is somewhat healthy, without seeing all the salt, sugar and fat they put in it.
That’s the whole point of going to a restaurant. >So you can convince yourself that the food is somewhat healthy, without seeing all the salt, sugar and fat they put in it.
I thought the point of going to a reastaurant was eating tasty food. No one’s lying to themselves about reastaurant food being healthy.
It’s also eating food in a social atmosphere without having to shop, prepare or cleanup.
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It’s simple, if a restaurant adds something to the bill I did not agree to beforehand I’ll never eat there again.
Yea they better have this charge displayed very well on the menu
Went out to a pizza place the other night. Thought it was a brewery (one of my favorite local brews, actually), and had been there before and enjoyed flights from them…only to find out the place was a joint between the brewmaster and the restaurateur. Brewmaster took his share, his recipes, and dipped a couple days prior.
Anyways while the food was pretty good, I mostly went for the beer and that’s a big part of why I won’t go back (they only had a couple cans from the brewery left and nothing on tap, only some other regional breweries).
But the other part is that my wife put a tip down on the slip for our party of four (us and two kids) and asked me to doublecheck her math. I thought it seemed high and it turned out they already put a tip on the bill. For a party of four. Never saw that before.
The service charge is not a tip or gratuity, and is an added fee controlled by the restaurant that helps subsidize the staff wages so that management doesn’t have to while still seeming to have reasonable prices on the menu. Also, management takes a cut as it subsidizes their wages too.
Edit: I get why this upsets some people, but the downvote button is not a disagree button. I merely restated the restaurant’s explanation in plain language. I’m not agreeing with it…
that helps subsidize the staff wages
Allegedly
But If that’s the reality, I feel no need to add a tip.
They probably pay $1/hr over minimum tipped wages. About $0.75 of that $17.22 fee goes to paying that increased wage, and the rest is pocketed.
If they wanted to subsidize worker wages, they would include a mandatory gratuity rather than a service fee. Gratuities are passed directly to workers.
This is truly scummy behavior.
If you charge me for service, I’m not paying extra for service.
Call it what it is - a junk fee so they can make their prices look lower than they are. I wouldn’t go to this restaurant a second time.
The cost of food in American restaurants includes service charger. It just not itemized. Waiters do have salaries, so it comes from somewhere.
That’s my point. This restaurant is try to bait and switch their customers by giving a misleading food price and adding a service charge. It is like a cell phone company adding garbage fees.
As for my initial comment - if you add a percentage for service, that ends my obligation to tip.
Ah! I see. You were talking exclusively about not coming back into US restaurant, not restaurant in general anywhere in the world. It was not clear for me.
Hey, look at our cheap food!
Oh, btw, we didn’t tell you, but it’s actually 18% more expensive than the prices on the menu.
Also, it’s $10 extra for the plates and silverware.
And we also charge you for eating in as well, that’s another $10.
And if you don’t tip on top of that, we get really angry.
Please leave a 5 star review!
I was talking about service charge, not tips.
And we also charge you for eating in as well, that’s another $10.
Some areas actually have different pricing for eating in vs taking out, as it’s treated differently by the tax laws. Some areas also tax differently based on if it’s cold or hot/cooked food, so a toasted sandwich costs a bit more than an untoasted one. Very small differences, though.
Yeah, my post was a bit of hyperbole, but I’ve been to a fancy restaurant a while ago, where they did make you pay for cutlery and also for the table separately.
But they didn’t have a take-away option.
The downvote button is a lazy disagree button, but people is also dumb.
subsidize the staff wages so that management doesn’t have to
Yeah that’s a pretty shit reason to levy this fee unsuspectingly.
In Australia this would be illegal drip pricing. JUST INCLUDE EVERYTHING IN THE PRICE OF THE FOOD! Is it so hard?
Absolutely wild you also don’t add tax in the price in the US.
Is it too much to ask to just be told the price upfront on the menu?
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Except you’re wrong. It is a tip because the tip is the service charge. The tip specifically is “we pay them less than minimum wage and your tip covered the rest of their service cost”. A tip AND a service charge, especially a service charge not levied because there were X+ people at the table, is double dipping on the tip. Both fees are for the same thing. Either increase prices or increase the tip(or pay your workers fairly and don’t expect me to subsidized the rest with these secret fees). Make them upfront and honest. This isn’t. This is a perfect invitation to say “you already charged me for the service, so no tip is needed, because that’s what it is for”.
Except you’re wrong. Service charges are not considered tips under FLSA rules within the US. Many states and local jurisdictions have special rules for tipped wages, how they’re taxed and those taxes are collected, and service charges are not included in that definition.
https://www.dov.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/15-tipped-employees-flsa
Nice reading comprehension. The TIP is a service charge. You got that backwards buddy. So a service charge and a tip is service charge x2. Or you’re admitting that a tip is only for “above and beyond thanks”, in which case it’s not mandatory and this is again a scam.
A tip is money paid directly to the worker providing the service. The restaurant can’t keep any part of it. They are not taxed on it, either as sales tax or income tax. That money is only counted as income to the worker.
This service fee was subject to sales tax. It will also be subject to income tax by the restaurant. The restaurant gets to keep as much of it as they want.
“Mandatory gratuities” are tips that the restaurant obligates the customer pay to the waitstaff. Where these are charged, you are not allowed to stiff the waitstaff. The restaurant cannot keep any part of that gratuity.
Tips/gratuities and service fees are not the same thing at all.
I’m not talking the law, I’m talking what the tip actually is in practice. It’s the service charge. You’re paying for the server to serve you. The tip isn’t for the food. It for the server serving. Just because you’ve been conned and guilted into accepting this as normal doesn’t make it right. And just because it’s taxed doesn’t mean it’s still not extra income to the resturaunt. Would it be ok if I mugged you but paid taxes on the money and gave it a cutesy name?
I actually support phasing tips out for service fees, less dodgy and less influenced by cognitive biases from customers toward certain genders or ethnicities of staff.
Roll it into the prices then. Any mandatory fee is a cost of doing business, don’t make it look like your food costs less than it really does. Only taxes should be separate.
It’s a USA thing. Other places often have rules that say the price advertised (on menu, website, in store) is the price the customer pays, all fees and taxes included.
Yeah in Australia restaurants are allowed to have a service fee only if it’s applied on select days (e.g. weekends and public holidays, but not every single day of the week) and they clearly display the conditions of the service fee “at least as prominently as the most prominent price on the menu”. Otherwise, they have to roll in any fees into the main advertised price.
Yeah, but phasing out should probably be some form of cross tapering, not a decently sized service charge and the same size “suggested tip” on top.
$18.25 for a kids meal, $6 for lemonade is ridiculous. Don’t walk, run away!
The lemonade is the same price as a beer 🤣
Need a tip at the bottom - it’s a LOT of hard work to process those mandatory service charges!
I don’t return to restaurants that pull this bullshit. Raise your menu prices to provide a living wage or take a hit to your profits.
Or, you know maybe the owner could live without a 5th cottage possibly?? naaaaaaa
That would be the ‘take a hit to profits.’ Yeah, I don’t expect that either. What’s annoying is that it is always the very profitable douche bag restaurants that do this. Most restaurants struggle to make ends meat.
That’s literally what they did and you just posted this comment flipping shit because they had the audacity to tell you it was going to the workers.
even in countries that actually pay their staff right, there’s no way those base prices don’t cover the cost of food, staff and overheads.
then they have the gall to charge a “service charge” to pay the staff.
THEN they have the gall to imply you still need to tip
fuck that to hell
That’s not implying anything that’s just listing the amount that any given percentage would be if you want to tip the waiter specifically, you might notice that all the percentages are below what’s seen as the base for a good tip, save the 15% which is just at it depending on where you’re eating at.
The service charge is for the pool for all the staff while the tip on this one is actually a good service reward since they adjusted price to facilitate a better wage, like they literally said at the bottom of the stub.
absolute crazy bullshit. don’t stand for that. restaurant price here what you see is what you pay. no stupid surcharges and no stupid tipping. fuck all that
Literally you’re being amgy that they told you money was going to the workers
spoiler: it’s not
join the first world and just pay them properly without all your fancy extra charges
I’m kinda confused, isn’t that what they did? Although you are probably saying you’d be less pissed if the prices for all the individual items were increased 18% so you knew the actual prices at the start?
So, restaurants might do this to avoid the cost of printing new menus with new prices.
Much easier and cheaper to just put signs at the table or print inserts, especially if you think prices will go up again soon.
But this honestly just looks like they’re trying to screw you.
Yes, prices on each item should increase. This is just a sneaky way of avoiding doing that. A bunch of dick head restaurant owners tried doing shit like this when my city passed a law making $15/hr the minimum wage with no exemptions for tipped workers. Restaurant owners like Tom Douglas had to raise prices but didn’t want to so they tacked on an extra fee and claimed it was a living wage fee but you were still expected to tip just as much. If I was certain that money was actually going to workers, I might be okay with it but there is nothing forcing them to give it to workers. Also, it is straight up admitting that you were paying starvation wages before.
People expected tons of restaurants to close after the minimum wage went up. None really closed and prices are fairly similar to most large cities. Some place did love to a no tip model with higher prices but generally it has been the same where you to 18-20% on the cost of the bill.
Ya this. The extra 18% should be baked into the menu pricing so that at least the cost is known up front. This is kind of like sneaking it in.
As a european, not knowing and legit asking: isnt that the thing all over the usa? I mean, you pick up something at the store, go to the counter and then SUPRISE, tax is added on top of the price. Like, that also feels like sneaking in extra costs?
A sales tax is expected in most states and is generally fairly similar within each state and almost never come to more than 10%. That also pays for services that most people use.
This extra charge at this restaurant is not common nor is it expected. They also set it at 18% which is a standard tip rate but specifically say it is not a tip. They claim it is to provide decent wages but considering they still allow tips (some places do this but do not allow tipping on top) , that pretty obviously is not true. This is just a bullshit tactic to have prices seem lower than the menu price.
Yes, we have sales tax too. It’s just stupid that it isn’t included in the sticker price
Basically. People just get used to the nebulous mental calculations of how much tax one can expect. It encourages a culture of routine overspending and should be illegal.
People expect to budget roughly tax and tip, they are basically mad because this is not a cultural norm and they got stung by surprise.
I would have not paid the 18% fee and let them explain it to the cops when they arrived. I guarantee that’s not posted anywhere that they do that- so…
False advertising.
I frequently see “an 18% gratuity charge will be applied to parties of 6 or more” on menus. It’s possible that this was posted and OP just missed it.
Edit: JK just read the text at the bottom where it calls it out as not a gratuity.
It’s not a gratuity, but restaurants like this often don’t expect tips either. At least in my area.
I would have not paid the 18% fee
Putting in a -18% tip when I swipe my credit card.
Places that do this will have fine print at the bottom of their menu mentioning the charge so they can avoid legal issues.
Image Transcription: Text and Image
A receipt from a restaurant. A white circle was marked up on the photo and inside reads the text
18% Service Charge (18.00%)
$17.22
The full receipt text shown is as follows.
Ordered: 11/11/23 6:31 PM
GARLIC BREAD $4.90
2 KIDS SHELLS $32.50
FUSILLI $20.75
CANNOLI $11.00
LEMONADE $6.00
DRIP COFFEE $4.50
2 DRAFT BEER $12.00
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE $4.00
18% Service Charge (18.00%)
$17.22
Subtotal $112.87
Tax $10.73
Total $123.60
Cash -$123.60
Amount Due $0.00
------------------------------------------
Suggested Tip:
8%: (Tip $7.65 Total $131.25)
10%: (Tip $9.56 Total $133.16)
12%: (Tip $11.48 Total $135.08)
15%: (Tip $14.35 Total $137.95)
Tip percentages are based on the check price before discounts and taxes.
The service charge is not a tip or gratuity, and is an added fee controlled by the restaurant that helps facilitate a higher living base wage for all of our employees. Please scan the QR code at the top of the receipt for additional information, or speak with a manager.
Really. What’s the new base wage? And if there’s better wage, the tip should be commensurately reduced.
[The service charge is] an added fee controlled by the restaurant that helps facilitate a higher living base wage
Great! I don’t need to tip because they already pay their employees a fair wage.
Ok where is this so we can avoid it?
The Ticketmaster economy
Many restaurants clearly state “we add gratuity of x% to tables of 5 or more”. Or something similar. It’s an asshole move not to share this until you get the bill, but if they tell you ahead of time, I think it’s fair.
Its probably some socialist country. Anyway I’m not entirely against it but it seems pretty high
It’s most probably the US actually which is one of the least socialist countries in the world.
You post Star Trek memes and you think Canada is socialist? AHAHAHAHAHA
In the UK we tend not to tip if there’s a service charge.
The rip is that service charges tend to be higher than the tip. I’ve always worked to 10% all my life, or I’ll add 10% and then round up to a nice sounding number. This was even considered reasonable in a lot of US places back in the early 90’s, but these days restaurants typically set their service charges at 12.5% or higher.
That might be fine; if the service is actually good I won’t mind, but if it’s just half assed service and the food isn’t great then I’ll kick up a stink.
I mean, I probably won’t, but I’ll fantasise about doing it while in the shower for a few days after.
In Spain we don’t generally tip at all.
Neither do we in Denmark. I think that’s generally how Europe works. The price on the menu is the price you will be expected to pay. Nothing more, nothing less.
If I have a restaurant or bar experience out of the ordinary or just have pleasant time with the staff I will tip. Otherwise I won’t, at it will be perfectly fine for everyone.
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