Automatic Gratuity Disaster
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In one form or another, it’s a phrase that appears on menus all over America…”An 18% gratuity will be added to parties of eight and over”. I understand the thinking from the restaurant point of view, and I also understand that it represents a disaster waiting to happen.
A friend (a chef/owner) just sampled the new French bistro in town, and secured an outdoor table for his party of seven that included six adults and a two-year-old. At some point during the meal, an unexpected guest sat down and enjoyed a glass of wine.
My friend is capable of being critical and basically was disappointed in almost everything – particularly the food, and “shocked” would be a better word than “disappointed”. He suggested that his wine (which included four bottles) was overpriced (over $44.00 per bottle; $11.00 in the State Store). His real problem was in the service, which was basically handled by busboys. He claimed that he saw his waiter twice – when they ordered, and when he presented the bill.
A bill of approximately seven hundred dollars included an automatic $140.00 gratuity. His immediate question was somewhat understandable. He asked the server to explain why he should pay him $140.00 when the waiter was hardly involved. The waiter suggested that it was their policy, and that it appeared right on the menu.
The real issue was in the restaurant determining the number in his party (the child and the unexpected guest). My guess is that the issue would have been almost non-existent had they not added the automatic gratuity.
Say what you will about tipping in America because it’s not perfect, but the guest controls the amount of the tip, and I see this as a decided advantage over the European system of automatically adding the tip to the check. And in fairness to my friend, he insisted that he was not in the habit of being difficult in a restaurant, especially when it involved the wait staff… “I’m in the business, and I understand the system – in my mind, this one went way over the line”.
Two managers got involved, and they were unable to solve the problem. My friend paid the bill and left. I don’t think we’ll see him back in this particular spot anytime soon. It’s a disaster that should never have happened! In terms of the concept called “word of mouth”, this one is working in the wrong direction.
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Comments
Solve the problem quickly by removing the the auto gratuity. Make him smile, let him decide the gratuity. The problem in the first place was the sever implementing the gratuity (this is obvious). Management can train an individual in do’s and don’t, then tell staff they expect them to be an adult an act responsible. But the fact is expecting that will only cause mishaps. Management must keep a close eye on their staff to insure the service is implemented exactly the way it is intended. Absence of an authority figure is when thing go wrong. People tend to do as little as possible as long as they can get away with it. There must be some
one in control at all times on the floor in order to execute the service required by the business. Excellent service equals money for both severs and business owners. Acceptable service equals less money for both and unacceptable service, well you get the idea.
Thank you,
Tyra
I am a restaurant owner and my restaurant has been in my family for over 80 years. We have never added a gratuity to a check automatically for a certain number of guests. It’s bad for business…period. When I go to a restaurant and see this on the menu it tells me that the service is not that good and it usually isn’t. When you have to add this to your menu it shows you have no trust in your servers.
I really don’t understand why this issue and issues like it are made to be more complicated than they really are.
A tip is for service rendered – period. It is either below expectations, at expectations or exceeds expectations. You get compensated accordingly.
This will have nothing to do with how long I’ve been “in the business” and as such I should be more able to “feel your pain” for the “victimization” you feel from your choosing to be in this industry at your position. You will get tipped based only on how well you conduct my experience.
“Being in the business” is also no reason to subsidize poor and sometimes downright rude behavior. And whether or not the service was “usually” good or not or that some good or bad incident happened once to a cousin’s friend 15 years ago is irrelevant.
An auto-gratuity is not a legally mandated payment demand for the guest - policy or not - Massachusetts or not - 18% or not. The only legal requirement is that if your house has an auto-gratuity policy, that you must enforce it consistently on all check sizes you post the notice about.
Provide my guests and I with a stellar experience and I’ll tip appropriately - and I’ll be the one who defines appropriately!
Amateurs continue to whine about this “problem” while pros just continue to provide outstanding service and make really great money.
While I too agree that the tip is not solely the server’s, (the bussers and bartenders get a chunk) it is important to keep in mind the premise of the initial post. Adding an automatic gratuity has BIG risks. In my years 10 years as a server and my subsequent 22 years as an owner I cannot recall an inordinate number of times when a server did not do better than the 18% add-on would have netted. This is a business of numbers and all servers everywhere would be better off to keep their attention focused on the guest rather than the tip. Judging a week’s pay by the party or by the shift is unfair and unwise. Dividing the tips by the number of hours worked at the end of the week is the only way to access what you make. Win some, lose some… it’s all part of the game.
As a former server, bartender, manager and now restaurant owner I have a few thoughts on auto-grat. My first waiting job was with a Marriott property where the guest paid an 18% service charge on everything…their hotel room, food and beverage, golf… They were told that tipping was not necessary at any outlet and we were informed that if caught soliciting a tip we would be fired. I cannot believe I ever took the job but did and work my tail off for 3 years before the policy was changed to the traditional system. I did make $8/hr but I knew I could make 3 times that in a tipped situation. What I witnessed and what later changed the system was incentive. What incentive did I or any other server have to give anything other than average service, like the cooks my pay was the same whether the food or service was good or not. I know that there were times, hungover or tired, that I did not give quality service but I would like to believe that I exceeded my guests expectations. The policy at my place is if a party of 8 or more would like separate checks then the server has the option of adding the grat. If a party of 100 comes in and is willing to put everthing on one bill then they determine the tip. My reasoning is that separating checks for large parties is time consuming for the server and the guests never seem to understand that and will take it out on the server. I give the guest the option which they seem to appreciate. What I have never understood is why 10 or 12 friends can’t take turns picking up the check, nothing is more aggrivating than customers bickering over a glass of tea or side of fries that they didn’t have but is on their check. And of course, if a guest ever told me that they did not recieve service worthy of the auto-grat, I will take it off and my staff knows that.
Jason Newsom
Big Daddy’s Grill
I work in Canada (British Columbia) and am aware that for most banquets/functions menus/sheets note that a gratuity will be added to the bill. In our dining room there was a dispute between management and staff over gratuity sharing. One day I walked in the dining room and the chef showed me the front of new menus that were printed up. I said, “Cool, very nice cover!” Then my eye caught the wording at the bottom … 10% gratuity automatically added to each bill. My only response was a hearty laugh! That was management’s solution to keep track of gratuities and establish a tip pool. I’ve worked as a server for 20 years. (I should add that our dining room is a unionized establishment and we work for an hourly wage with benefits) The fact is not every one tips. I love what I do for a living and it reflects in my service. I consider it a privilege to serve! The tippers and non-tippers will both receive the same level of service from me. I find it annoying those that seem to think they are hot shot servers and barely do the basics of service, believe they are entitled to a gratuity and complain when they are left without. I have to commend the servers that do their job and go beyond (ie: taking up the slack for other servers that are visibly slacking off - hung over, personal chit-chat sessions, just standing around) in addition to taking care of their own sections. I eat out twice a day at the minimum of five days a week. We have over 50 eating establishments to choose from in a town of 13000. I make sure I visit restaurants and servers that truly care about the work and their business. In addition to a generous gratuity, I make sure I recommend the server and the business to everyone I know.
Obviously a question of underpayed staff. I mean pay accordingly.
As an European I do not think that the US system is of % gratuity is the way. For us it is “impossible to understand” the fuzz about it. Pay the people a honest salary and they get the tips from customers (if satisfied) with service. 140 $ for tips!!! Come on… Even discuss who gets more or less …. Only in America ;)..don’t get mad.. have no intention to harm you 
Regards
The NRA lobbies against every minimum wage hike, they lobby against raising the minimum for tipped employees. This only helps fast food propagate while making foodservice careers into jokes for sitcom ridicule. Most restaurant business plans are built around low prices - made possible by LOW WAGES. Some would say that the consumer wins, I don’t think so. Wouldn’t the consumer have a consistently better experience when served by true professionals rather than transitional, part time & teen age employees?
I have worked in restaurants since 1973, owning one for past 22 years. Though I have been successful I wish I had chosen another path.
Finally - Too many customers think its 1970 or that a restaurant is a slave house for people too dumb to have “real jobs”. So yes we have a mandatory gratuity. It’s often a point of contention (I hate this) but it does help solve the problem.
I have my own opinions about “auto-grat” on parties, including a big one involving the server actually working if they’re going to get a tip automatically. Servers who do nothing just because they’re automatically getting tipped due to the gratuity make me want to scream.
When I take parties that have gratuities, I tend to work as hard as I can for them, including upselling to get the grat higher, and making sure everyone stays happy on the off chance that the host might leave a bit of extra on top of the gratuity, moving it from 18-20%.
I’ve noticed the “auto-grat” problem coming up a lot in discussion lately, and it’s led me to start studying the laws (at least as of a few hours ago) in order to provide my readers with the proper information in regards to proper procedures with gratuity, including: is it legal to put a gratuity on a party without verbally informing the guest, if the guest doesn’t want to pay the gratuity despite the level of service being high should the management be forced to remove it from the bill, etc.
If you’ve got any information on the topic of tipping laws, either from the restaurant or consumer side, please feel free to e-mail me the source. If you know of the proper websites that I should visit in order to find the various laws involved that would be awesome.
Thanks for your time,
The thing that has to be understood that usually the server doesn’t recieve all this money. A cut is given to busboys and all other tipped employees and if the business choses they can pocket a lot of the tip. Which often ends up happening. So maybe if you offer to pay the server in cash a decent tip they would be happy. I know I would. It is better than the business getting half of my tip.
This article makes me sick. The guest in question has no idea as to how the restaurant is run and how tips are split up. We as servers consider his type one of those nitpickers who looks for any excuse to leave a bad tip, no matter how hard the server is trying.
Guess what buddy, there is no excuse to not leave a 20% tip. You got your food, you got your drinks, what more do you want? The server to polish your knob?
Your complaint was that you did not see your server and the busboys handled the majority of the work. Well, I can tell you right now, the busboys are getting a portion of that 18% automatic gratuity. All restaurants has a tip out system in which the server is required to give a portion of his tips at the end of the night to the busboys, hosts, bartenders and food runners. So basically by wanting to screw to the server, you want to screw everybody. Don’t eat out you cheap jerk.
To Mikey: Bah. That’s what happens when you institute an automatic gratuity (note: it’s not a gratuity if it’s considered mandatory). My shields immediately go up. Usually, it’s just shorting the staff, because I’d tip more than the 15-18% automatic, or make sure the table does in larger parties, but when the gratuity is automatic, I’m only going to go out of my way to fix the tip if the staff went out of their way for us.
There is no excuse to not leave a 20% tip? Sorry, but the “standard” is 15%. That’s not my personal standard, but who are you to tell me that 20% is the minimum? Getting my food and my drinks is the server’s job. They get paid to do that. Checking in after the food is served, being responsive when we’re trying to get their attention, making sure the water is filled and the table is cleaned (even if that’s the bus boy’s job) is all required to secure a decent tip. There’s no excuse to not have any of that.
Yes, I think we know that tips are split. If I were really upset with my waiter, but not the busboys, I’d be likely to tip the busboys directly and undertip the waiter. But anyway, it’s not the patron’s responsibility to worry about how the restaurant is run or how the tips are split up. That’s the restauranteur’s responsibility. If you don’t like it, work elsewhere; just like if I’m unhappy with the place, I’ll eat elsewhere.
I just recently experience the auto 18% gratuity at a large Orlando resort. I think it hurts business and I saw the reasons why first hand. At the poolside was a bar and pizza place where you could walk yourself and order yourself if you wanted. You could also get service from a server walking around the pool. If you walked up to the pizza place and ordered it yourself and walked it back yourself you were still charged an 18% gratuity fee which was ridiculous. What was the 18% for? The pizza was very small and flat, enough for one person. It was a sort of rip off. I decided not to argue but I noticed no one was ordering a thing. Also I ordered a drink at the bar, overpriced to begin with where the 18% was also charged. That was surprising since the cost of the hotel, fee and parking rates were exorbitant and families have already spent a fortune to be there.
I saw quite a few arguments about bills at the front desk as well. They were room charge happy at the resort which
I’m sure results in a few unhappy endings. Another important issue is the servers will never get more than the 18%. In the old days you might get a few larger tips here and there, but now the gratuity is aggravating those outcomes.
Comment to “Mikey”
You buy food and drinks at your local supermarket, right? The superstore clark provided his/her exceptional service.
Do you tip them? Why not you cheap jerk?
Automatic gratuity is a must. I’ve been a server for 5years and any server, new or experienced, will tell you that automatic gratuity, while debatable in situations like this, is the best, most unbiased way of making sure that servers aren’t taken advantage of. Servers make half of the state minimum wage in almost all 50 states (California unionized); therefore tips are where the vast bulk of their income comes from. When one eats out at a typical restaurant, usually there are cheap options on the menu for under 20 dollars. How much do you think the average chicken Parmesan goes for at an ordinary Italian restaurant?: $15-$20. Serving tables is a strenuous and exhausting job and most states require someone of at least 18 years of age to serve, 21 years to bartend or make drinks for their table. With most servers being over the age of 21 it’s safe to say no one would do such a hard job for anything under $12/hour. So ask yourself, how much do you think that same $15 chicken park will coat you if tipping is done away with and restaurants needed to pay servers upwards of $12/hour? More than 18% additionally i can guarantee. This is the bargain of tipping: it drives and keeps down food cost. Otherwise restaurants might cut their staffs an then how good do u think the aervice will be? Automatic gratuity is a safety net for bad tippers not upholding their end of this bargain. Every server knows that their restaurant is watching out for them when auto-grats are applied. And as far as children are concerned: they are among the worst guests to wait on. Most children throw food everywhere and order little to nothing leaving servers to clean up messes left by guests they made almost nothing off of. hate to say this but certain ethnic groups dont tip either. For the most part, black people and middle eastern people tip horribly or dont tip at all; it wouldn’t be fair to only add gratuity to these tables and not the white tables so again it is eat simply to grat all tables over 6 people. Additionally, at every restaurant I’ve ever worked at servers pay out the bussers and bartenders a percentage at the shift’s end. So don’t think for a moment that cutting corners on tipping is helping anyone but yourself. We can all go to paying $40 an entree at even the worst restaurants with no incentive for servers to work harder. Or there is another option: stay home and make your own food if you can’t afford to tip your server AT LEAST 20%.
So, what if the establishment is unethical and does not give the 18% gratuity to the servers? I was recently charged an 18% gratuity on a bar bill, when the bartenders had tip jars out that were filled to the brim numerous times…why should I pay a bar gratuity at the end of the night? All in all, the gratuity was over 3000.00 for 2 bartenders?? I think everyone on earth would be banging the door down for a bartending job knowing that working 1 wedding would net you tips, from tip jars on the bar (which I believe shouldn’t have been there in the first place if I was going to be charged a gratutiy at the end of the night) AND an 18% gratuity of 3K on the host’s bill. Sorry I don’t feel bad for anyone making over 2 thousand dollars in a night? Who’s to say the bartenders or service staff even see that money? In our case I’m sure they didn’t the shady vendor, Cortese’s Italian Banquet Hall in Kenosha is pocketing that money I’m sure. How do you go about getting that reported?
Since when did the gratuity become a gimme?
Recently went to a restaurant in Disney world in Orlando. The service was good, not the best but above the norm. The bill came and I thought 15% was more than adequate. The waiter picked up the bill and came back and said he forgot to add the gratuity and had changed the bill to reflect that.
He added 18% of the total bill including the tax.
What the heck is this.
What if I had left 20%? would he have been back, or just pocketed the difference?
All in all , it is one place I will not return to, ever…………
The sense of entitlement is ridiculous. I am lucky to have a decent waiter but someone wandering by now and again would have wanted the same amount.
Anyway I think that the customer should determine the level of the tip based on the service received.
My two cents for what it is worth and yes I have had at least one waiter that deserved only 2 cents…
Yesterday at a Mother’s Day Brunch my husband and I–a party of two!–found a 20% gratuity added to our bill. The kicker is that it was a buffet. All the waitress did was bring us two glasses of iced tea. Is there a central restaurant association that hears complaints?
Adding automatic gratuity seems to be more common these days. As a restraunt server/manager, I can sympathisize with both parties. However location and the type of customer can play a huge part too. After serving in a bad spot for a number of years and dealing with trashy customers who only tip a dollar per person at the table, most servers get frustrated by the lack of condiseration after we try to do out best to please them. Never mind dont expect them to give you anything after you serve the. Frankly the restraunt industry can be tricky at some moments however if a customer cant be willing to tip anymore than 15% of the bill they shouldn’t be eating there.
servers make 2.13 an hour if you don’t get good service they must take it off. otherwise thats what it is if you can afford a $700 dinner get over it or have your butler feed and wait on you. That server probably had other tables or maybe had a bad day.we’re luc ky if we make $700 in a week.
I understand when someone receives bad service they should have the right to tip what he/she thinks BUT when a server has run her butt off and gotten you a dozen refills and has done nothing wrong it is very aggravating to get a less than stellar tip. I don’t agree that tips should be added to all parties but yes larger parties should have an added 18% especially if there’s multiple checks. Nothing slows a server down more than split checks. It can take a lot of time away from her other tables. And if you’ve never worked in a restaurant then don’t complain about tipping. You have NO idea what it’s like. And please learn how to do Math!
Oh yeah and taking away tips in America….do you want good service? Then tip! Going to an hourly wage will not help your experience at a restaurant. Tipping is what drives a server to do well. You will not get quality people applying for server positions w/out tips.
For the record, I’ve been a server for almost 7 years now. I disagree with an automatic gratuity being added to any party under 6, no matter what the circumstances, but I think that for larger parties it is completely reasonable. There are simply too many variables involved with a large party, many of which the guests do not consider when deciding on a tip.
First of all, large parties often take a server’s entire section, and tend to sit for much longer than an average-size table would. Second, food for a big table tends to take longer, often by no fault of the server, which many people take into account when calculating a tip even though it was unrelated to the waitstaff’s performance. Third, large parties sometimes miscalculate when paying the check, especially when everyone is trying to pitch in their share. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a large party where everyone puts in money for the exact menu price of their food, forgetting about the taxes (which then comes out of my tip at the end.) People think that someone else paid for their shared appetizer, Friend A told Friend B that he’d buy her a drink and then forgot and left after only paying for his, etc. And, a lot of people just start getting antsy about tipping large amounts when the check gets over $200. For these reasons, I think an automatic gratuity for large parties is acceptable, but only if the party is informed when making a reservation or being seated.
By the way, when I work a party that I know will be auto-gratted, I never look at it as an opportunity to slack off. Maybe I am the rare idealist server, but I do legitimately want my guests to enjoy their meal and have a good time, and whether or not I am guaranteed a correct tip at the end I will do my best to provide that. Plus there are plenty of people (we love you!) who add extra to the gratuity when you do a great job on their party.
Basically, I think it’s fine to have it on there for large parties as long as they are informed ahead of time and as long as it seems that the waitstaff is friendly and making their best efforts to get you what you need. The only exception I can see where I think asking for it to be taken off is warranted is if the server is rude, because that’s just never ok.
I am a server, bartender and have been in management in the past. Having been in the industry for 15 years I know that there are many aspects of what goes on in a restaurant that the guest never see’s or understands. The person the guest has the most interaction with is the server therefore the server/bartender tends to be the person who takes the blame for the majority of problems that may arise regardless of fault. Imagine if your boss could deduct money from your weekly check based on the performance of your coworkers. I also know that there are many occasion’s when a simple adding error or someone forgetting to leave a signed charge slip can mean that I don’t get payed for services I have provided. Imagine if your boss forgot to put your paycheck in the envelope and there was nothing you could do about it. If a restaurants policy is to add a gratuity because of a certain number of people (printed on the menu and check) then that is the policy! I can’t go into a store or business and argue how much I think I should pay for something. If I don’t like the prices or policies I have the right to go elsewhere. When deciding to go out to diner you should remember that gratuity is part of the meal. If you can’t afford the tip, then you can’t afford the experience. If there is a problem with your service or experience than nicely ask to speak to a manager and get them involved before the check hits the table. The experience my guests have is important to me and I want people to enjoy their time in my restaurant. I would love to be wealthy and just wait tables for the interaction with people but the bottom line is I’m there to do a job and to get payed appropriately for that job.
It blows my mind when management is so short sighted as to not see an opportunity to be the good guy. Policy Schmolicu! You make the rules so you are allowed to break them. Do whatever it takes to make this guy happy! He is reasonable in his disappointment. Grab the moment to be compassionate and make this guy proud of the industry he’s also in!
Betsy Fischer,
Restaurant Management/Culinary Arts Program, Santa Rosa Junior College