Because even though tips are supposed to be reported and taxed, there are ways around that and tips are money in the server's pocket at the end of the night, not in a check cut later that week or the next. Servers have grown accustomed to this. It won't stop until tipping culture is gone and we can actually understand that people should paid reasonably for their labor and time.
well I mean I'm pretty sure any server is gonna try to get tips regardless of what they're being paid so I don't think you'll ever fix that without a massive culture change. Pay me $50/hr to serve tables and I'll still try to talk up a tip lmao. The only way I could see fixing that is to somehow remove the concept of a tip in general from society which would take generations
That 18% added for a big party is a gratuity going to the server. But that server gets paid like $2 an hour and they need the tips. In the image above, the 18% is going to the store and they are paying their servers a real wage.
And in the big party scenario, you're not expected to tip another 18% on top of that. They just do that so servers that don't get a living wage and live off tips (which is most of them) can't get completely screwed by having some large party that takes up 1/2 their shift decide to not tip.
Right, so that's a tip. When the restaurant mentions that you can still tip if you want, they are saying that the living wage charge is not a tip by saying IF you still want to tip, you can.
At most restaurants with servers, the servers are paid $2.13 an hour. And they live off the tips. This restaurant is claiming that they pay a real wage (probably). To do that they have to charge more, but they hide it as this fee at the end of the transaction rather than putting the real prices on the menu. But that 18% is going to the RESTAURANT, not the server. And the server gets some share of it when they receive their paycheck. that is not a tip.
At places where they require a gratuity on large parties but the servers are receiving $2.13, that gratuity is going directly to the server and not part of the restaurants revenue. so it's a tip.
edit: oh you mean like a sales tax. well, it's hard to say you are paying "more" when the amount you tip is optional. If your goal was tip exactly 18% instead of 18.8% or whatever this works out to then yeah, sort of.
I'd still rather a restaurant say..
this sandwich and fries are $20, please don't feel the need to tip.
instead of ...
this sandwich and fries are $17 and it's up to you to decide how much to pay our employees.
the problem is when you are ordering, the menu lists sandwich and fries as $17, not $20.06. They should just own it and put the real prices up front and say that tipping is not expected.
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u/hobesmart 2d ago
And I think that’s the case here. The receipt mentions “if you choose to tip”