to be glad restaurant and cafe service charges will be illegal soon?

[quencher]

Restaurants will not be allowed to include it on the menus or say the percentages your allowed to tip.

we plan service charges or tips with our eating out funds. What I don't like is being forced by some establishments or made to feel guilty even though you have received a poor service to tip. In our house we believe in tipping but that does not make it OK to do it unnecessarily.

[MaudGonneMad]

Really weird - on the AIBU homepage your post is coming up with a different name

[quencher]

What do you mean?

[RiverTam]

Tipoing is to do with the level of service. How can you budget for that exactly? I don't like it being included partly because I think it should go directly to the waiting staff who served you and partly because if the service is great I'll tip more. But equally a lot of people are utter walkers about tipping. FIL is really stingy even when the service has been good. So I can see why some places include it.

[nobilityobliges]

Oh I much prefer it being included than having to think about how much to tip. Don't like the idea of withholding payment for "poor service" either.

[tangerino]

I would far rather there was no tipping culture at all and that things worked here as they do in France and Belgium (ie the food is more expensive, waiting is seen as a skilled job rather than as something any goon can do and waiters are well paid so that they don't need tips- in fact, tipping is seen as patronising and rude).

Bad service is often nothing to do with the waiter (eg where there are too few waiters employed or the kitchen is behind with orders). Why should they be penalised?

The whole culture of tipping seems really old-fashioned and cringe-worthy to me.

That said, I obviously do tip- my objection is not to paying the money but that the poor waiter only gets tips (and therefore a decent wage) contingent on customers' whims. Scrap tips, raise wages.

[Trills]

You have worded this all quite confusingly.

not be allowed to include it on the menus

Do you mean they will not be allowed to include a service charge on the bill?

say the percentages your allowed to tip

No clue what you are talking about here.

[mamamea]

service charges/tipping is silly, so long as we have a minimum wage. kitchen staff on minimum wage - no tip; waiters on minimum wage - get tips

[GinAndColonic]

Massive tables of people rarely tip well. I've never objected to a service charge for a large party.

Restaurants that make people auto tip for everything are terrible though. Pay your staff well in the first place.

[quencher]

Yes you can budget. If we are spending £60 for two we include 15% on top of that instead of the usual 12%.

I used to prefer giving the money straight to the person waiting but dh believes in paying it together. How he explained it made sense to me on how the waiter won't get the full amount back based on taxes, bills for the credit card and also giving a percentage to the chef.

Tills in some places they include the service charges at the bottom of the menus. But it usually says it discretionary in small prints. I have had this for lots of times for drinks too on a nights out.

[MilkTwoSugarsThanks]

I thought the idea of tipping was to encourage serving staff to be wonderful, helpful, pleasant and polite.

[quencher]

I was meant to say a lot of the time drinks menus have them too. Unless I go to the wrong places in London.

[HunterHearstHelmsley]

I'm glad they're getting rid too. It has always seemed quite bizarre to me.

I don't tip, partly because I find tipping quite condescending. Plus, you receive service from an awful lot of people on minimum wage who you don't give extra to.

[80sMum]

I think tipping should be strongly discouraged, if not banned altogether!

Customers have very right to expect a decent level of service and to get what they pay for, regardless of whether they are buying a meal in a restaurant, having a haircut, having their car serviced, buying food, staying at a hotel, having a new kitchen fitted etc etc.

[Underdogsbollocks]

Is this confirmed then? I thought the government had just said they would be prepared to enforce laws if need be, but there isn't a need just yet. Not sure though I was driving at the time so probably only half listening.

[80sMum]

Hunter yes, that's it! It's very condescending. It's treating people like children, giving them a little 'treat' or some extra pocket money for being a good girl/boy!

[expatinscotland]

What bothers me is that when it's included, the servers have to pool it.

[madamginger]

I don't tip ever, I earn just over minimum wage as does the person serving me.
That is what they get paid to do just as I get paid to do my job.
I expect to get good service in any establishment where I spend my money and shouldn't have to spend extra to get it

[LordoftheTits]

I hate tipping and grudge it here. I'm just back from a week in the US and, while I fully understand the reasons behind the tipping culture there, it stresses me out. I wish everyone paid their staff fairly and upped their prices accordingly so I don't have to hand over fistfuls of cash to servers, doormen, taxi drivers and bar staff (with every single drink!).

[quencher]

80smum I hadn't thought of it that way. That is a mind fuck.


It's a proposal and if agreed upon it should be illegal soon to do so.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/end-of-line-for-service-charge-added-to-your-bill-n07p8s2g0

[Akire]

I don't agree either - it's not my job to pay staff X amount towards their hourly rate. It should be paid well enough. Plus if I order cheap £10 meal and Diet Coke £3 or a £40 meal and bottle wine say £15 both take same physical effort to put on the table.

Meal A would be £1.30 tip

Meal B would be £5.50

I mean come on! It's not like the do special dance delivering it to your table for the extra £4.10 I'm paying them!

[hmcAsWas]

I would like waiters and waitresses to be paid a sensible wage rather than underpaid with the expectation that the tip makes up the deficit. I fully appreciate that this would put the costs of a meal up - but I think its preferable. I always tip unless the waiter is unpleasant / inattentive (very, very rare), it worries me that a lot of people I know don't tip at all or leave a paltry amount

[WhoTheFuckIsSimon]

Ime servers dont pool all their tips. My waitress friend doesn't and she reckons her colleagues don't either. They "declare" maybe half.

I always tip of service has been good or even ok. What I dont like is places like Pizza express where you can add your tip onto your credit card payment. I read the restaurant take 10% of the tip as an admin charge so I always leave cash.

[Charlesroi]

I think restaurants add the 'discretionary' service charge as it doesn't attract VAT. If they added it on to the cost of the food then they would have to pay.

I'm not a fan of tipping, but if I do then it's in cash and directly to the server. Just to make sure the restaurant aren't using tips to subsidise the wages. If you want to make sure that tips are shared round all staff then ask if they have a 'tronc' system.

[quencher]

Whotheruck when the tip goes through the restaurant system, the mangers have to pay taxes and banks on top on that based on the same rate. 8% of £10 goes straight to the bank or what ever the bank charges the restaurant.

And every money that goes through the cash register has to be taxed based on the normal tax rate.

[frikadela01]

I would love tipping to be made illegal. I've never understood why it's ok to give some people extra money for providing a service and not others. When I was working minimum wage jobs I was never given extra money so why should others get it. And let's face it none of it gets declared so is tax free too.