Unlike most of the jobs paid by salary or commission, restaurant service positions are compensated by tips plus a small salary. The more up-scaled the establishment, the greater the tips– usually. And, the busier the place, the more tips for the serving staff. The servers who give unusually good attention to their patrons will typically be given a large tip. This makes sense on paper, but there are always the exceptions.
Guarantees don’t exist in the world of waiters, waitresses, bartenders, etc. when it comes to making a living. Many restaurants have an automatic gratuity charge of 15% for parties of eight or more that is added to the bill. How much goes to the staff and how much goes to the restaurant is unknown. As a side note, when there is this standard gratuity charge, patrons have little control over under compensation for poor service.
That being said, there have been several chain restaurants in New York City’s Time Square that have tricked the customer into paying 18% gratuity on all checks. Not only is this unethical and deceitful, “but these restaurants have jointly conspired to raise prices in a deceptive manner,” said a lawyer who is representing one man who came forward to complain about such unconscionable actions.
What happened to honesty and integrity Applebee’s, Olive Garden, Ruby Tuesday and Red Lobster? Shame on you for taking advantage of your customers. Some of these restaurants were my favorite places to eat, but not anymore. Payback is a bitch!
Great write up Nancy, I often get annoyed when I am charged for gratuities automatically! Who are they to tell me how much I should or shouldn’t tip a wait staff member? What if the service sucks and I don’t think they deserve a tip? What if they are sharing the tips at the end of the night with someone that didn’t even serve you? Back in the day I was a busboy, waiter, bartender and cook. all positions hard work and for the most part are compensated accordingly through the different salary levels for each position so why split up a tip with everyone? Got me!! I will complain and demand a restaurant take off the 15% or 18% auto gratuity if the service sucked but if it was good I always pull the waiter or waitress and sometimes even a Mater-D or Owner over and say, ” It’s too bad” and they always say “Whats too bad” I say, “it too bad you told me how much to tip your staff because they are better then 15% I would have given them 20% if you didn’t tell me how much to tip!” Maybe if more people did that we could get that practice abolished. Lastly what is all these tip jars at Starbucks, Dunkin-Donuts and other coffee and fast snack or sandwich places? Really?? You have to walk 6 feet pour a cup of coffee and maybe put a pastry in a bag or rap a sandwich and you want a tip?? Really??? What is the world coming to??? Just Sayin!
Steve West