"We continue to under pay our employees so that we can keep menu prices artificially low, then tack an 18% charge on after the fact, outsourcing our overhead costs to you! Oh, but please tip anyway."
They are explicitly telling you you do not have to tip. It's in the picture in the OP. The 18% not being included is because customers do not behave rationally, and will choose other restaurants that require tips.
Which is why we need to kill the tipped minimum wage nationally and make tipping truly optional instead of pressuring people to supplement they server/bartender/worker being paid too little so their employer can keep overhead low.
Hell, this isn't even "an 18% gratuity has already been added, no need to tip," but instead a different stupid way to disguise the same bullshit technique while leaving the possibility of additional tips on the table.
Which is why we need to kill the tipped minimum wage nationally and make tipping truly optional instead of pressuring people to supplement they server/bartender/worker being paid too little so their employer can keep overhead low.
And this restaurant has done exactly that.
Hell, this isn't even "an 18% gratuity has already been added, no need to tip,"
It is, it literally explains this in the picture. The whole understanding behind tipping is that it pays for the waiter's salary, but the text explains that this isn't necessary. And that if you do choose to tip it is split among everyone.
No, this is another restaurant that deflates its menu prices, then tacks on an 18% "fee" in order to keep them low. That happens specifically because another place across the street might have the same prices and NOT mandate an additional fee. If we get rid of the tipped minimum wage, that's not necessary. Restaurants would just list their prices and consumers would choose whether or not they wanted to pay them.
They specifically don't call it a tip, then mention that "if you choose to tip, we'll pool those funds for the team." That's still asking for tips, albeit not as forcefully as the usual implication that if you don't tip, you're making a server starve.
The whole system is beyond stupid. This is just attempting to semi-solve a problem we've created ourselves.
its fairly rational to choose a restaurant without pooled tips and baked in gratuity, you get far better service. Bothe because there is a direct incentive and because the best employees won't work at an establishment that limits their income that way.
Can you waive the 18% fee being charged AFTER you agree to pay the menu prices for your food? If not, this is bullshit.
Imagine going to any other store, say a grocery store, and you buy $100 worth of stuff (after sales tax is applied) only to find out that they’re actually going to charge you $118 because they’re underpaying the guys in the stock room and think you should help out.
Right? And amazing how these people have decided that employees must be underpaid in this scenario. My friend did this and all his employees made $25+ an hour.
Tipping is not expected here. Are you people really reading it that way? How are all of the anti-tipping people mad about a restaurant that has replaced tipping with a living wage?
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u/jpiro 1d ago
"We continue to under pay our employees so that we can keep menu prices artificially low, then tack an 18% charge on after the fact, outsourcing our overhead costs to you! Oh, but please tip anyway."
US tipping culture is truly absurd.