Comments on: How Do You Feel About Mandatory Gratuity at Restaurants?

By: deb

deb — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 05:44:24 +0000

obviously most of the comments i read are from people who have never waited tables. i have worked in the “industry” for over 10 yrs and i absolutely work for tips! 15%?? are you kidding me? it is 2011 and we make 4.23/hr, which is crap, but we depend on the moron’s we wait on to pay our rent and bills. when i get a party of 6 or more i go above and beyond the call of duty to make sure their experience was top-notch because i earned the 20% gratuity that im entitled to… yes i said 20%… newsflash people.. that IS THE NORM THESE DAYS!

By: Pat Weaver

Pat Weaver — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:44:21 +0000

Tips
T to
I insure
P prompt
S service

What is so confusing about that?

By: Defiant Jane

Defiant Jane — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:36:10 +0000

Dear god! People are such dicks about tipping. I wait tables to get through college, its a good gig for the most part, I make decent money. What I don’t get it, why go out to eat if you can afford or don’t want to tip? It doesn’t make sense. Go to McDonalds if you don’t want to tip servers. I can see if you get super shitty service but just not tipping just because is very trashy. We remember your faces and we pass the word around. Just to be clear, most of the time, no matter what any other servers say, we know how you are gonna tip the minute you walk in the door. You don’t have us fooled. I also embarrass people and call them out when they are cheap after excellent service. Also, another word of advice, the managers really don’t give a shit most of the time when you complain, they just want you out of their face. Don’t come back, we don’t give a fuck. Well, I’m off to make a fuck load of money from classy people!

By: ONLY001

ONLY001 — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:52:48 +0000

@Karissa…. I don’t think most people mind tipping a good server.. someone that knows that their job is to serve the customer and to be attentive. I have however had many very bad even down right rude servers and tipping those folks bothers me a lot.

By: ONLY001

ONLY001 — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:43:34 +0000

Don’t agree with mandatory gratuity. Typically I will tip 20% for average service but if they stick a gratuity on my bill I’ll pay it but that is it no more no matter how good the service. The restaurant should call it a service fee and the host(ess) should have to disclose it to the party before seating them. I’m with the couple that refused to pay it… if the service is awful why should I pay a gratuity for service that was not rendered. It is no longer a gratuity if not paying it can result in an arrest.

By: john

john — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 12:57:12 +0000

to Stella, that’s just straight rude, get a manager involved. policy at our restaurant is that we warn that there is a gratuity at the bottom of the receipt so there is no deception.

By: john

john — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 12:55:14 +0000

where i work, its parties of seven or more. i hear that we are changing that to 6 or more. you always have the right to refuse gratuity if you believe its your decision. the grat is there due to the fact the server is running other tables as well but is doing their darnedest to take great care of you. i personally dont ass gratuiy to parties i know i gave great service too and i end up getting 20% or more. I make 2.83 an hour. 15 to 20% is the standard now, deal with it. 15% for poor service, and 20% for great service. if it is over the top and you and yours had a good time, hook them up. ive got a 100 dollar tip on a 50 dollar check before. most chain and seclusive restaurants ensure every guest is satisfied with their service.

By: Stella

Stella — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 22:52:22 +0000

Mandatory tip for little to no service is ROBBERY. I was at a restaurant last week. They did not post anywhere they tip is automatically calculated and there were just 2 of us, not a party of 6+ or 8+. We found they add 18% tip on EVERY BILL. My neighbor almost tipped them twice. Our neighbor and my table both received little to no service so we crossed out the total (with the 18%) on the charge and wrote in new totals without the 18%. I signed only for the new total. They put through the total with the tip to the credit card company. I am going to dispute the amount because I feel I am being robbed.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 20:40:46 +0000

I live in Oregon, where we have a standard minimum wage that must be paid to ALL employees, tips regardless. Hence, there is no requirement for an employer to make up the difference, and all tips are ADDED to the same wage that non-restaurant workers earn. Our current minimum wage is $8.40, and I believe this is the second highest state minimum in the nation. What’s more, cost of living is quite reasonable, even in Portland.

I do tip, but only because I feel the heavy social pressure to do so. I don’t see why workers earning the same amount as any other minimum wage employee should be showered with extra cash for competently doing their jobs.

You don’t tip your server at McDonald’s or Wendy’s, or the girl who checks you out at the department store register, or the guy who bags your goods at the grocery store. With as many orders as a server takes in an hour at a typical sit-down, I get the feeling many servers here are going home with wads of (usually) unreported cash tips in addition to the $8.40 they already earn.

I’m troubled by this assumption that if you don’t tip enough in the server’s opinion (or don’t tip at all), it’s perfectly acceptable for a bartender or waitress to intentionally lower their level of service in the future. I’m a firm believer in the inherent dignity of taking pride in every aspect of your work and treating paying customers with respect.

By: Karissa Perdue

Karissa Perdue — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 22:29:35 +0000

I am a server at Logan’s Roadhouse in Amarillo, Texas. I don’t feel that everyone should have a mandatory tip added to their tickets just the one’s that have 8 or more people in their party. At Logan’s Roadhouse servers make $2.13 an hour but sometimes depending on how many tables we have in an hour and depending on how well they tip us we don’t always make even that. If I had it my way I would tell everyone that they should be a server at least once and then people like most of you would stop complaining about having to tip your server. You know the person who runs your refills to you, gets you everything you need, and then when it comes time to pay you tip them nothing. Servers pay their bills through the tips they make and if people like most of you don’t tip them right then they struggle. I work two jobs and go to school but I only work the second job because people don’t know how to tip their servers properly.

By: Einar

Einar — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 02:05:50 +0000

It’s a gratuity. A gratuity = bonus for excellent service. EXCELLENT. Not OK, not decent. Excellent.

I really don’t care how your employers are screwing you. If your employer is treating you so badly, look for another job at a better establishment. (Admittedly tough these days!)

- BUT –

You are in a SERVICE industry. The keyword, obvious to some, being SERVICE.

Provide my family, friends etc. EXCELLENT service, and I will tip generously.

If you are rude, lackadaisical and generally inattentive. No tip. Not 10%, not 5%. No tip.

I recall, years ago, my wife-to-be at the time and several friends went out to eat. (party of 6-8 or so).
My wife always orders “no mayo”. Her order arrived WITH mayo. OK, mistake, no big deal. Send it back for a new one. (or send it back so they can scrap off the mayo).

So about 15 minutes later, everyone else in the party is happy and has a full belly. No meal for my wife. Nobody in sight.

I FINALLY find another waitress who states, “Oh, xxxx is on her break. I’ll check up on it.”

WHAT? She left for her break before all at her table were served?

I swear, sometimes I think people in this industry are insane.
That was the only time in my life I left a “vindictive tip”

One penny, gently smushed into a spot of salad dressing on the table. I hope she got the message.

By the way, I also work in a service industry (technology). I do not expect tips and rarely receive them. But I always, always strive to provide my clients with the very best service I can provide.

Holy cr@p, what a crazy idea?

And guess what? They always come back AND refer all their friends and coworkers to me.

Now, that’s just nuts isn’t it?

By: Bruce Miller

Bruce Miller — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 22:16:16 +0000

I don’t think tips should be mandatory at all. I believe it should be up to the custormer to give a tip if he or she got good service, and according to what kind of service whether the waitress or waiter had a bad attitude. Some are very rude. Also, some waitresses will make a point of taking care of the men at the table, and act like the wives or girlfriends don’t exist. This can be very offensive to the woman. Also, how would the restaurant like it if the percentage for the gas tax was raised? (This bugs me-When the tip used to be 10%,and you ordered a $20.00 meal, the tip was $2.00. Then when the tip was 15%, now your $20.00 meal became a $3.00 tip. Now they’re asking for 18% & 20%. The raises keep going up, but their pay doesn’t. Why don’t the employers raise the pay to minimum and let the customers give tips as they see fit? I believe in tipping according to the service, and I think waitress should be trained in how to treat customers, especially, women, when they are with their spouses. When the waitress comes to a table, she should look at both the man and the woman, and ask if everything is ok). Something needs to change with the tipping.

By: Wake Up America

Wake Up America — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 20:00:45 +0000

A tip or gratuity is a reward for excellent service, not average or sub-standard service. It is not automatic or mandatory,it is not a reward for just doing your job of serving customers, otherwise we would be tipping the people at Mc Donalds for taking & filling our orders. Any establishment that charges its customers such a fee should be forced to comply with disclosure and truth in advertising laws by stating clearly to their customers or post a sign in public view, that our prices are actually 18% higher than posted on our menu, or post the price of each item on the menu + 18% (example: Steak Dinner $20.00 + 18% Service Charge for bringing it to your table)

If Americans continue to patronize businesses that impose these highly questionable practices, they are only adding fuel to the fire! Wake Up America!
You & you alone have the power & ability to decide where you spend you money. Spend it wisely!

Patronize company’s that earn your business, not take you for granted or assume your business is automatic. Send them a message Loud & Clear!
Let them make money the old fashioned way, earn it!

By: Adrian

Adrian — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 14:06:31 +0000

Part of the culture? I should join this weather I agree or not?? You would have had a hard time living with yourself using that logic during the days of slavery. Or not.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 14:24:46 +0000

Ha hahaha….this whole thread is hilarious. I have been in the restaurant industry for years. When you get hired at a restaurant you know the wage for a server is most likely going to be 2.50 an hour. By law the employer has to make up the difference to minimum wage if you didn’t make enough tips. So, the server every day must be paid $7.35 an hour by law. If the employer refuses to do this then report them to the Labor Board. An employer cannot “force” you to claim more tips than you made. Now they may try but this is a bad employer. Please quit trying to blame customers for not tipping. It’s the employers who are the cheap ones. They are making out big time by leaving it up to customers to pay the wages for their help! Having any kind of mandatory gratuity listed on a menu is just plain tacky! The employer should be ashamed of himself. He/she should be paying the mandatory gratuity to their own staff is what I say.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 16:01:06 +0000

I dont understand what do we pay the waiter for? they only bring the food which is cooked in the kitchen by the cook. We do not tip the cook, who infact makes good food. So why do we have to tip the waiter?

By: Junglegal

Junglegal — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 20:09:42 +0000

My case/complaint is even worst. This afternoon, my family and I went to a Chinese restaurant to have lunch. We had a party of 5 (2 adults and 3 kids). It is a sit-down dim-sum restaurant. Howeve, with poor airconditioning and almost self-serviced. They billed me with a mandatory 15% gratuity on top of the bills. I then asked them to scatch it off and i will pay another amount of gratuity. They said if I do so, next time I have to order take-out instead. Now, I googled the law that the gratuity is kind of mandatory to a large group of 6 people not 5. Second of out, gratutity should be award to good service not poor or no service or self-serviced…..They didn’t void the bill as I paid by credit card. Instead I have to Amex to stop the transaction if they changed more than the cost….

By: Eric J

Eric J — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:22:57 +0000

I feel as though mandatory gratuity breaks with the tradition of “earning one’s wages”. What I mean by that is this:

How hard will an employee work if the otherwise hard-earned money is guaranteed? We should keep in mind that not everyone who works as a server will feel and act this way, but the possibility is still there. I regularly tip the accepted percentage of a standard meal and only refused to tip on one occasion.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:35:59 +0000

Yes,its true its up to the employer to pay the servers. The problem with that is if the server had cheap people all night long and made less then they should have then the employer will force them to claim what they didn’t make or fire them for bad service even though that server most likely gave fabulous service (your just cheap)The reason they will firer the server is because they don’t want to pay the difference and don’t have to as long as the server agrees that they will claim over what they actually made in order to keep their job in hopes for better people tomorrow… Not only does your tip pays your server that server pays the buss-er, bartender,and Uncle Sam out of the tip you left…. So if your bill was 85.00 and you are cheap and leave 5.00 dollars that server just lost money on you.If tipping 15 to 20 percent is so tough on you then there is always MCDONALDS it might be more on your level of dinning…..

By: Leonard

Leonard — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:50:52 +0000

I hardly tip either unless the service was exceptional.

The employer is responsible for the server’s pay not me.

Why are they special and deserve a tip?