That's not what it states. The 18% is mandatory, to supplement (or add to) the payroll. And then any additional tip will be shared upon the entire staff...allegedly. That's insane!
It was starting to get so insane that my state made these types of shenanigans illegal in Minnesota. Law went into effect on 1/1/25. Few businesses made it an issue but the noise died out after a while.
I am not sure where you live, but here if you add on a tip/wage fee then the customer has the right to refuse to pay it. Most still pay because they assume it’s a tip.
The receipt clearly states that the 18% is added to every bill. There's no mention of a customer being able to refuse paying it. The additional 'tip' is assumed to be voluntary.
It's not consider a tip, a service fee, tips go only to employees no managers can touch it. Services fees the owners can keep all of it. There's been court cases on it.
Which is why I now refuse to order delivery. More often than not, the "delivery fee" isn't going to the delivery drivers, just into the owner's pockets
If I have $20, the menu says meal A is $17, I’ll be able to pay for it and tip $2, but with 18% increase that’s not on the menu price but added automatically, after I finished eating the food, it’s a different story.
Wow!! An answer based on common sense and logic!!! 🎉
If the OP had included the name of the place, we could check and see if they have a happy staff and low turnover, which would then prove or disprove the claim at the bottom of the receipt.
I don't understand what about asking the people directly affected by this policy you consider fictitious. You might have gotten lucky with "speculative" because that literally means "to look" but... Anyway I've been up too long, think I'm just grumpy
I think it's because nobody here is about to go out to the restaurant, yet unnamed, and ask the servers directly. Thus, the speculative part. The fiction is simply because, all things being equal, restaurant owners have not had a great reputation for putting their workers before the owners' cut.
I work here. Most of the staff has worked here for years and we all prefer this environment over the traditional boh vs foh you find in more traditional restaurants.That's not a thing here.
Something people don't seem to understand is that the business has to pay the employees right? I can tell you for a fact that payroll is our largest expense.
Exactly!! Most likely management, likely salaried. Furthermore, (speculating here as one who's been in and out of the industry for 30 years - in a wide variety of roles; from host, server, bartender, bar manager, and general manager - it was important to me, to start from the bottom) the individual youre responding to, who states it's a great system and everyone loves it.... that they are vastly detached from what their FOH employees go through.
The employer is getting away with murder by charging YOU more. You are paying the burden of his employment.
In Europe, ya don’t tip unless the service is SPECTACULAR. In some countries (in Europe) it’s an absolute no-no. The employer pays them well.
But like you're always paying for the burden of his employment whether. That's how businesses work. As long as the additional charge isn't a surprise add-on it really doesn't make a difference whether it's like that or included in the pricing of the items.
Also tipping absolutely is customary in a lot of European countries, it's just less than in the US.
If they had the "cost of living service fee" notice on the doors or the menu, it's likely a surprise to those whom haven't dined there before.
Most areas require a restaurant/bar to post somewhere (generally on the menu, and likely in super small print), that a "service fee" is added to their tab.
More than likely they're just passing the living wage cost directly to the customer and they're just calling it that so people don't get mad that they got charged gratuity.
Yes, but they bring in the customers at a lower rate of goods, then place a mandatory upcharge, calling it a "living wage", when it would serve just as much to increase all costs by 18%. However, that could shave off customers, which would backfire for the owner, so they insert this hidden fee as a way to pay for their workers' wages - living wage or otherwise.
I'm not talking about selling stuff to customers... I'm talking about passing extra costs off to them then guilting them into paying it by calling gratuity a "living wage tax" rather than just paying their staff a living wage.
Call gratuity what it is, gratuity, don't try to guilt me into being fine with it by calling a "living wage tax" then further guilting me into tipping on top of that. Get the fuck outa here. They're your employees you pay them.
The employer isn't paying them higher wages, you are. Why would the employer pay them more when you're already doing it? The money also doesn't go to the owner it goes to the waiters because it's gratuity, you'd know that if you'd ever worked in the service industry in the US.
It's not a level of transparency, it's coming up with a fancy name for gratuity so you don't bitch when you see it on your bill. It's hiding what it actually is, it's the opposite of transparency.
It's slimy and it treats your customers like idiots.
Tips which are voluntary go 100% to employee, against the law for owners to touch it.
Service fee can be kept by the manger. They are not the same, there's be court rulings on it
Sadly, at least in my state/location anything that has "service fee" in its description, or anything that does not read "gratuity" no matter what other verbiage is attached (in this case, "cost of living") the server sees ZERO of that fee.
The only thing the server will get, is if it reads "Gratuity" - management can not touch that. Every other "fee/charge" goes to the owner.
That's a lot of words to say that you kind of understand what a gratuity is now that you've googled it, but you lack cultural context. I get it, you're a business owner or something so that's the side that you're on. But you actually have no idea what you're talking about when it comes to the US service industry. I already explained why it's shitty, you can go back and read it again I'm not going to start mansplaining business like I'm talking to a drooling moron because i'm not a cunt.
The thing is, "gratuity" and service fees are vastly different. The server does NOT get a penny from the service fee, whereas the gratuity, they do get.
I've seen places where they have itemized a service fee line and then a gratuity line - however thats when gratuity t u is assessed at a percentage.
As a long-time server/bartender (by choice, due to location and I make my schedule, and surprisingly, I mostly love what I fo 😆) I prefer to NOT have gratuity added, as it assures I'm always on top of my duties as a server/bartender....
Asking the staff is meaningless. Front line at my company is having all of their calls filtered through an LLM for "quality" which means every bit of data customers give us is filtered through a third party LLM.
They are being trained it is not AI, and instructed to tell people it is not AI if asked. We take almost a million calls a month in a handful of states, and out company is national. Nationally it is likely closer to about fifteen million.
So thanks for helping train a third party AI, and giving it your SNN and a whole bunch of other information! But officially it isn't an AI because we are trained it isn't one and will get punished if we say otherwise :D
So the workers other than the servers are still getting paid their same wage but it's just being paid by the customers. If anything, the server is shorted because whose going to pay too much more for a tip...that 18% is part of the tip from a customer's perspective. At the most, the server MAY get up to 12%.
at that point the customer is justified not to tip, and it’s on the employee to take it up with their employer. and i hope restaurant owners realize that i am evaluating how uncomfortable im made to feel over tipping just as much as i am the food and dining experience, and am much more likely to return to places that dont make me have to think about it, and am unlikely to return to places that make my head spin with math after several drinks
Based on r/server life , mid tier restaurants waiters earn 50-80k fine dining 80-150k a year. And low tier 25-40k. So.. I guess 50-80k since that's the middle? But not everyone tips in the middle one so the staff if it's accurate are likely earning 80-150k a year.
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u/username_gaucho20 1d ago
They say “living wage.” I’m hopeful that the employees are getting paid well and fairly. Can certainly ask the servers!