10% gratuity added to bill

[Byz]

AIBU to be annoyed by a 10% gratuity charge being automatically added to my bill at a restaurant?

Seafood restaurant in the North East, a little town, not a city.

For four of us our bill came to about £230 and a £23 tip was automatically added to the bill. It did state at the bottom of the menu an optional charge would be added but they didn't ask me before actually adding it.
When the waitress brought the bill over she reminded us about the gratuity and said she would remove it if we prefer but I think I should have been asked if I wanted it adding in the first place. It was quite embarrassing to ask for it to be removed. She was polite about it but did seem a bit surprised.

Food was good, service was good and I would have left £10 but it soured the evening a bit so I left nothing. I don't think tips should be expected in this country.

I do. Why wouldn’t people? Are you saying you don’t tip a cleaner?

Lots of people very happy to ignore the fact nmw is not a living wage in this country. They're already supporting underpaying employees. Of course they resent any tip.

Very good point. We're all forced to 'tip' other NMW employees through our taxes and thus subsidise other industries that don't pay people enough to live on. However, that situation still goes to prove my earlier point that tipping is, overall, not in the favour of the waiting staff. If you work in Tesco on NMW, you may be officially entitled to a set amount of UC/other benefits to be paid to top up your income to something you can (theoretically) live on - you aren't left hoping that somebody may or may not arbitrarily pay it on a whim.

Of course it’s their job to give good service. Not sure why you felt the need to be patronising and point that out to the rest of us that understand that.

I don't see why that's any more patronising to state on a discussion where many people are patronisingly shouting out 'tightwad' to people who don't like the tipping culture, without any other justification for their view. It's a very valid point.

So many on here are acting like NMW is a lot of money.

No, it's not; but loads more people are on it than just serving staff. I wonder how many of the people shouting 'tightwad' at those who don't tip a waitress on NMW (or do, but object to the way she's expected to rely on goodwill for a large part of her income) are themselves apparent tightwads who never tip other people on NMW and don't even pay it a second thought or care that they too are on a low wage.

Do you tip carers / cleaners why if not? Do carers/cleaners not work just as hard as waiters ?

I do. Why wouldn’t people? Are you saying you don’t tip a cleaner?

All cleaners? Not just one in your home but one you encounter if you go to the toilet in a supermarket or stop off for a meal at a service station? Do you slip retail workers a few quid every time you buy something in a shop? A fiver a week each for the bin men?

I really wish we could get to the point where people at the lower end of the pay scale can nevertheless receive a fair, living wage as part of their agreed, guaranteed income, without the indignity of having to rely on people's goodwill for a large part of it - or needing government/taxpayer top-ups for that matter.

Just what I was thinking.

It is not a "living" wage. It is subsistence level.

And this govt is working as hard as it can to get it removed.

I see previous posters mentioning service charge in italy - but this is to cover bread / oil / olives whatever that are always brought to your table. Not the same thing at all

What does other people's tip eligibility have to do with anything?

All cleaners? Not just one in your home but one you encounter if you go to the toilet in a supermarket or stop off for a meal at a service station? Do you slip retail workers a few quid every time you buy something in a shop? A fiver a week each for the bin men?

I’ve never seen cleaners in a supermarket toilet and if I did I’d assume they are there to clean for everyone not just for me.

A lot of people here seem to be unable to distinguish between personal one on one service and someone who just happens to be employed by a company to provide an none personal service.

I don’t always tip retail workers. I’d would be rude and patronising to do that. They are people and I don’t appreciate anyone trying to take the piss out of them to prove a pony. However, I have tipped for good service when they have went above and beyond to help with an issue. I’ve sometimes bough a gift and sent a thank you card as tipping isn’t always appropriate in that situation.

I actually tip cleaners on holidays

lot of people here seem to be unable to distinguish between personal one on one service and someone who just happens to be employed by a company to provide an none personal service.

They're able to distinguish they just want to obfuscate their real motive

Not your own personal cleaner , a cleaner in a shop ? Do you tip fast food server they are working very hard to make your meal. Do you tip your childcare provider they also work very hard on minimum wage.

Are you saying you don’t tip those hard working people? What people do you tip? Why don’t you tip those working on minimum wage?

I do like how tipping always comes to"I don't get it so I don't want them to get it"

I have not seen anyone say that NMW is decent wage or a living wage.

As many people have pointed out though:

• It is not just waiting/catering industries who are paid NMW
• Many on NMW will have their pay topped up by UC.

Why should some staff on a low wage be given a tip for doing the job they are paid for and others not? If you went into a clothes shop and spent £200, would you give £20 to the cashier? If you go to your local swimming centre do you slip the cleaner a quid for mopping the floor?

There are so many industries and jobs that pay NMW where the staff work really hard in physically demanding jobs, they deal with members of the public, they work unsocial hours but their jobs are not deemed ones you would traditionally tip.

We are not a tipping society and we shouldn't be. People should be paid a fair wage for a job well done. Consumers should know the price they are paying without having to cost in a tip.

While I support UC, it shouldn't be needed. We should be paying more and businesses should be paying staff more. It is a catch 22 though with increased staff costs comes increased prices which comes back onto consumers. We need to continue to strive for this though.

A lot of people here seem to be unable to distinguish between personal one on one service and someone who just happens to be employed by a company to provide an none personal service.

But a lot of the people on here are saying why they firmly believe tips should be considered essential on the grounds that the waiting staff don't earn a great wage (which is true). Just supposing all waiters and waitresses routinely earned a basic guaranteed wage of £30 an hour, I can't believe that many of the 'but you must tip' people would still hold to that view and would continue tipping, custom or not.

Just because somebody on NMW cleans toilets for 50 users whom they don't meet in person and another person earns NMW waiting on 5 tables of people whom they do see in that same hour, how does that make the cleaner less worthy of (or needing) tips/wage top-ups from those they are serving, in order to take home a reasonable income?

You definitely don't tip everyone on NMW providing you a service 🤣🤣 what a load of shite . Do you tip at mcdonalds?

We are not a tipping society and we shouldn't be.

You invented tipping!
Yet another sport invented on this island where original players don't do well in🙈

They're able to distinguish they just want to obfuscate their real motive

😂

Once again all the tightwads justifying not tipping by 'do you tip everyone else in the entire world?' it's about personal service. I always tip hairdressers, taxi drivers, cleaners of my hotel room, and gave my cleaner and when I had childcare providers extremely generous cash gifts at Christmas and birthdays. Yes, some can't afford tips but back to the OP - if she and her friends could afford a £230 meal then refusing to pay another £6 per head on top is Scroogetastic

I haven’t commented on what I do I those situations. You said that there are hard working staff in McDonald and on minimum wage. I’m asking you why do you tip them? And if you don’t what’s your motivation for not doing it? You brought the point up so I’m interested in what you do?

They do that as standard in most 'proper' restaurants .. you just ask them to take it off and pay what you choose ..

Life lesson learnt ✅

I also don’t mind leaving a tip if the tips actually go to the staff, my dd works in hospitality in a small independent owned restaurant, they have 5 establishments and each worker gets £1 tip for every hour they worked and the owners keep the rest.

so on Christmas Day dd worked 8hours and got £8 in tips! Scandalous, she said there were hundreds of pounds left in tips.

I tip my hairdresser £20 because they do a cracking job and it takes hours. That is truly personal service. I also give my cleaner an extra £40 at Christmas . I don't tip everyone only fine dining will I tip more.. I probably tip around 5-10 percent for meals but it has to be really good food. The staff do get wages it's not like USA where they are completely reliant on customer tips. I do eat out very regularly and I'm assuming restaurants would rather they had my business more often Vs making bigger tips.

Wow!....you were very rude imo...thats not how it works in restaurants.

People should be paid a fair wage for a job well done.

You are right. They should.

And benefits for people who are unable to work (for whatever reason) should be generous enough to enable them to live without having to worry about every single penny.

And no child should go hungry to school, or come back to a dark, cold, unheated house.

And no elderly or disabled person should have to struggle to obtain vital services of care.

Unfortunately we live in Tory Austerity Land, and we don't have any of those things.

I worked in McDonald's as a teen and I was paid a wage. I did work very hard rushed off my feet every second of the shift. I did not expect customers to tip me.

Are you saying you don’t tip those hard working people? What people do you tip? Why don’t you tip those working on minimum wage?

No, and I don't believe most other people do either.

I know it's a very valid point that is nevertheless derided by MC MNers, but I'm on a small fraction more than NMW - plus I can only work PT for health and disability reasons. Nobody tips me - nor would I expect them to do so.

I don't see why so many people are scoffing at those asking "why should I tip somebody who earns the same amount as I do?" - with the only solution offered by many of them being effectively 'well, maybe enjoying a meal out with friends is not for the likes of you, then'. Nobody suggests that somebody who works as waiting staff shouldn't use the toilet at a supermarket unless they're able/willing to tip the cleaners on the same wage as they are.

On the surface, it sounds like a no-brainer to enjoy getting extra money on top of your wage - especially if people feel socially pressured into giving it - but tipping really is a way to subjugate the lower-paid people in our society, with the end result that it pits them against each other when discussing it, between the tipped NMW workers and the untipped NMW workers.

I would so love to see tipping become a culturally unacceptable thing to do - and acknowledged as the patronising and classist custom that it is - because for ALL people on the (proportionally) lowest wages in society, those wages were nevertheless at a decent, realistic level - funded by more realistic prices being charged rather than artificially lower prices coupled with an expectation/hope for an arbitrary amount extra.