Gratuity

[BBatesokc]

Personally, I think the restaurant thinks its looking out for its employees but this reeks of 'small minded, over management.'

They could raise their prices by say 10% and give that (plus any tips) to the wait staff and most customers wouldn't notice and probably wouldn't feel as offended.

Terrible marketing/customer service move IMO.

[RadicalModerate]

^^^That. What Brian said.

Frankly, if I noticed a charge like that on the check, I'd refuse to pay it.
If the management tried to hit me with a "defrauding an innkeeper" charge, I'd respond with a "defrauding a diner" charge.
(and this from a 20%--pre sales tax--tipper).

[Of Sound Mind]

• Wait staff should earn minimum wage regardless.
• Automatic gratuities result in two things from me:
  
  1. I only pay the mandatory gratuity amount and not my normal gratuity, which is 20%-plus for reasonable service and 25%-plus for excellent service, since I once worked in the service industry during my high school and college years.
  2. I do not return to that establishment after letting the manager know why.
  
  

[Garin]

Any table 5 or more is the policy, I talked to them this morning over the phone and confirmed that the new menus stated the charges now. So Irma's burger shack can kiss my butt goodbye for good.

[Pete]

Any table 5 or more is the policy, I talked to them this morning over the phone and confirmed that the new menus stated the charges now. So Irma's burger shack can kiss my butt goodbye for good.

Wow, FIVE or more? I've never heard of such a thing, especially when including kids.

[Pete]

By Patricia Sabatini Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Some diners view automatic gratuities as a convenience. For others, it's like being force fed.

Either way, the practice of automatically adding tips to bills for big groups -- often tables of six to eight people or more -- could quietly disappear following an IRS ruling that forces restaurants to classify such charges as wages, not tips.

"Say Goodbye to Automatic Gratuities" is how one law firm put it in an alert to the hospitality industry last year in anticipation of the ruling that's now set to take effect Jan. 1.

Florida-based Darden Restaurants -- operator of Olive Garden, Red Lobster, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille and others -- said it would decide by yearend whether to eliminate automatic 18 percent tips for parties of eight or more at its some 2,100 locations.

The country's biggest casual dining chain already has dropped the practice at 100 of its restaurants in various markets across the nation. Instead, it prints suggested gratuity amounts on diners' receipts -- for 15, 18 and 20 percent of the total bill, excluding tax -- leaving the tip line blank for customers to fill in.

"We're testing this change in an effort to determine the best way to preserve tips for our employees while following the IRS guidance," spokesman Rich Jeffers said.

So far, diners have said they like seeing suggested tip amounts on their checks, he said.

"The feedback we're hearing from guests is that it is very convenient."

Darden began rethinking its tip policy after the IRS issued updated guidance further clarifying a decades-old rule that treats mandatory gratuities as wages, subject to payroll taxes. The agency planned to start enforcing the regulation in earnest this past January, but delayed the action until Jan. 1, 2014, to give businesses more time to comply.

The action could complicate record keeping and could end up raising payroll taxes for servers and restaurants where automatic tips continue to be imposed.

The ruling would have little or no impact on businesses' payroll taxes if waitstaff correctly reported all tip income to their employers as required by law, the IRS said. Practically speaking, however, taxes could go up if some workers have been underreporting their tips.

"If all tipped employees report 100 percent of their tips, the additional FICA [payroll] tax burden on the employer should be negligible, if any," the Internal Revenue Service said in an online Q&A on the issue.



Read more: IRS ruling may take gratuities off the menu - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

[onthestrip]

My guess was that OP was part of the after-church crowd. Said crowd is notorious for poor tipping. I'll bet at almost any other time other than Sunday morning, this wouldn't have happened.

This was my experience when I was a waiter for a summer. Sunday afternoons were the worst, the most work for little compensation.

[Easy180]

If it costs the same today as it did two weeks ago I don't get what the hullabaloo is all about...If the server's service sucks they get let go

[Anonymous.]

I can't wait for the restaraunt service industry to be overhauled.

Tipping in the US is so backwards that it is flat-out embarrassing. WHY are customers responsible for paying employees? Why not call it 'wage contribution', because it is most definitely not a 'tip' anymore.

[Pete]

By the way, what is up with this constant percentage creep with tipping?

Not that long ago, 10% was the accepted norm and 15% was reserved for exceptional service. Now it seems 15% is assumed and 20 or 25% is not unusual when service is considered especially good.

And now "standard" mandatory tips are 18%??


These are percentages so why do they keep going up even when prices are already rising and thus the gross amount of tips is going up at the same rate?

[BBatesokc]

If it costs the same today as it did two weeks ago I don't get what the hullabaloo is all about...If the server's service sucks they get let go

The entire concept of a tip is moot if its forced upon a customer. While the 'cost' may be the same to many - there is now the additional step for a customer to have to complain to get their 'tip' back if service was sup-par. Additionally, in many cases the end cost will be less because customers will often not tip more if forced to tip at all. Not to mention overall lower sales volume if people stop patronizing a restaurant out of principle.

There are plenty enough bad servers out there to disprove that "if the server's service sucks they get let go."

[jdcf]

No Irma's for us.

[Easy180]

Sid is right on. People go to Irna's for the food not the service. Might get it if we were talking Red Prime but...

[Midtowner]

^Speaking of the Sunday afternoon crowd...

[Of Sound Mind]

^Speaking of the Sunday afternoon crowd...

We get it. You hate Christians. It seems that they are the only hypocritical, self-righteous, inconsiderate people in the world. Get rid of them and all the world's ills will be solved, right?

[sgt. pepper]

The wait severs should most definitely make more than $3 an hour, but I am on the side on no automatic gratuity, I will make that decision based of course on the service. I believe if all restaurants had automatic gratuity.....the service would really, really suck everywhere. I understand on large parties, but not five. I like of sound mind post....I am really tired of waiters picking on the Sunday crowd, like Christians are the worst tippers. That is so ridiculous. I thought the rich were the worst tippers and the poor were the best? or the American Indians are the best....wait......people with curly hair are the worst! People born on Thursdays are the best!!....whatever.

[Mr. Cotter]

The fake tip is tacky, regardless of what the message is. If you can't afford to tip, you can't afford to eat at a served table.

[Teo9969]

I can't wait for the restaraunt service industry to be overhauled.

Tipping in the US is so backwards that it is flat-out embarrassing. WHY are customers responsible for paying employees? Why not call it 'wage contribution', because it is most definitely not a 'tip' anymore.

Right, but you enjoy significantly lower prices for your food that you would be paying otherwise, and you do get better/quicker service because of this.

If the industry is overhauled and Front of House staff is actually paid a "reasonable" wage (we'll say $10/hour for your average restaurant like Chili's or Red Lobster) prices for food will be raised somewhere in the range of 10% to 30% and there would be less Front of House staff on the floor on any given night which would inevitably lead to "worse"/slower service.

You will also have a lot fewer veteran servers willing to spend time in the industry, unless there is (very unlikely in the US) a major incentive to keep people there. If you can't make $20/hour serving, then it's not somewhere you're going to be willing to stay for a long time…not when you have no shot at benefits and it's difficult to reach 40 hours/week without working 6 days.

I don't know what they pay servers in Europe, but I don't get the sense that it's particularly high unless you're talking about a premiere establishment. I'm almost entirely positive that if you translated that culture to the States, service would fall to ****.

[Teo9969]

I disagree Pete that service is worse in Europe. I've never sensed that kind of distinction at all in Europe. Even without always able to speak the local language, wait staff was always friendly.

Friendly =/= Good service. I'm going to make an assumption that you were traveling in Europe and so it probably wasn't a big deal to sit at a meal for an hour minimum. I personally enjoy the time to sit and relax, but there's no way that would translate well to the US, especially in a culture that expects everything quickly. The average table of 4 at your average restaurant wants in and out in 45 minutes…there's no way that has any prayer of happening in Europe if it's remotely busy. That would aggravate a lot of people.

Far more so than food timing though, general drink levels and pace of getting beverages is far slower in Europe and would probably be the first area Americans realized a difference in a tip-based system and a wage-based system, and I'm pretty sure most, with their penchant for gulping down tea and soda, would find that to be particularly annoying.

[mkjeeves]

One thing I have noticed and wondered about in Europe...the waitstaff seems to have an average age of much older than in the US, and especially older male. Could that mean they are career jobs as opposed to in the US where it tends to be young transitional? (Low paying, no benefits and no future on average here. Yep, with single payer healthcare over there if nothing else.)

[Midtowner]

We get it. You hate Christians. It seems that they are the only hypocritical, self-righteous, inconsiderate people in the world. Get rid of them and all the world's ills will be solved, right?

Nope, it's just that if you ask any waiter, Sunday mornings are the worst.

--but if you wanted to eliminate terrorism, the oppression of minorities and most causes for war, getting rid of religion might be a good start.

[Teo9969]

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if a chunk of the waiters in Europe are family members of the restaurant owners just doing what they can to help the business out.

I don't think that's necessarily the exact answer, but a possibility. There were a decent amount of younger (20 to 35) servers/bartenders in Europe when I was there from July to mid-September

[Jeepnokc]

The wait severs should most definitely make more than $3 an hour, .

I posted this previously but seems to be missed. Waiters make more than 2.13 per hour. They have to report their tips at the end of each shift for tax purposes. If the $2.13 per hour plus their tips do not equal $7.25 per hour....the employer has to pay them more so they are making at least $7.25 per hour. This is federal law. Really not that hard though to get to $7.25 from $2.13. That is 5.12 per hour in tips. Most waiters have 4-5 tables in their section and turn tables every 45-60 minutes.

I not saying that waiters deserve only 7.25 per hour but when I waited tables at Chilis on Meridian and Pepperoni Grill, I always averaged $13-18 per hour including the time for closing duties. (even on Sundays but it is true at least in my experience that the Sunday crowds do not tip as well but neither did the stock show people either) The $2.13 per hour basically covered my taxes on the total wage.

[BBatesokc]

ou aren't there to purchase wait service. You are there to purchase food.

Which is exactly why forcing customers to tip and how much to tip is ludicrous.

But you're not there to for the wait service, you are there for the food.

Not true - at least from my perspective. I go out to eat for the entire experience. Bad service can ruin that experience regardless of how good the food is and really great service can makeup for food that is otherwise nothing exceptional.

I do agree that for many restaurants the idea of paying next to nothing and relying on tips to cover your wait staff is crazy.

To me Irma's is a good example. IMO - restaurants such as Irma's should pay their staff a decent wage that is elevated by tips. Naturally the prices would have to reflect this. This might be a turnoff to some customers, but to me its the fairest route.

If I got out to eat more often, I'd be sure to eat at Irma's. I appreciate companies that are willing to get rid of the meaningless steps.

What are you talking about? They didn't get rid of anything other than my right to chose to tip or not and how much.

[Garin]

Lady named Linda from Irma's called me this afternoon asking if i wanted a refund and I declined the offer she asked if i would remove the negative posts I left on urban spoon about the incident, I told her that i think the policies are not suitable for this type of restaurant.


(Sorry Garin -- I accidentally removed part of your post while attempting to respond. ~ Pete)