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.

Or work a week serving ppl for 2something an hour

People don't work for £2 an hour in the UK, not even under 18s who (wrongly, in my view, as they are doing the same work as someone older) get a lower minimum wage.

Every restaurant I’ve been to post covid has added it to the bill. I assumed it was about cash.

So they put it on the menu to advise they would add it, then they told you when they presented the bill. I think thats really fair and transparent of them.
I would only remove a tip if the service was really bad, if mediocre but no effort I would likely reduce it but If good/excellent always pay it.
£230 for 4 people and you balk at a tip... you sound a bit tight.

This is very interesting - thanks for posting

Aye, maybe I'm a cynic, but they aren't putting that law through for the benefit of waiting staff.
How long before people are forced to declare it as income, taxed / IN and taken into account for benefits?

It's an interesting proposal reigatecastle, but straightaway there's the potential for the usual bunfight in this: "A fair distribution of tips will be context-specific, taking into account such matters as the seniority or experience of an employee, the value of sales generated by them, the number of hours worked, and so on"

I also doubt it'll stop the all too common claims to diners that "the staff never see any of it", which is why I neever ask and leave it between employer and employee

Wow! So you get served and spend $230 on a meal and then moan and complain about a 10% tip (which 20% is the standard). AND you only planned to tip 5%? If you can afford a $230 meal, you can afford the tip. I would ban you from the restaurant AND make sure everyone knew what kind of person you are. Stay at home and cook your own food your majesty. These hard working people are NOT your servants!!

They are waiting on you and hardly make anything an hour. You sound like a spoiled, entitled brat. Stay home your majesty and make your own food!

Your talking absolute shite by the way.

My life. My opinion. Bye!

Definitely are. It's just entitled and rude to not leave a tip. Most people who get tips live off of them. I used to get maybe 300 in tips a month and less then 200 on my checks. It would be $70 here and there cuz tips are what they live off of. If you don't want to me a decent human being and pay the basic 15% then make the food at home.

Not in England they don't.

@Minxy0717 am sure there's a name for demanding money from people!
As pp have said why only is it in this environment people are entitled to demand/expect extra money? Can you imagine being in Tesco and the person on the till says, "right that's £57 for your shopping and me serving you takes it up to £63.."

In what dream is 20% standard and compulsory tip anywhere in Europe?

Those people are employees of the restaurant at the first place and their salary is responsibility of their employer.
Actually, the servant terminology works the other way round, they aren't my servants waiting for a coin I might drop. They are employees of a business which should deal with the money for everyone (they state a price and I pay it by one tap of my card, they employ staff and pay them, no need for extra bills changing hands like in medieval times)

My apologies, I didn't know this was only for Europeans.. I'm American and proud to support our hard-working staff with tips.

Do you never think that you may be subsidising low-paying employers, though, rather than random other customers who are given a price and expect that to be the price - as with just about every other business where goods and/or services are being sold?

No, not really. Without the tipping system (and I still believe that most guests in the restaurants I eat at accept that it is a system) the wages would increase and the prices would increase and on average employers would be unaffected. Those people who tip like me would be slightly better off. Those people who don't tip would be worse off. It's pretty clear who benefits from the voluntary tipping system!

I agree that it is odd that it only works like this in the restaurant sector. I agree that it would probably be better that it didn't work like this. But as long as this is the social norm that most of us follow, we are subsidising those people who refuse to pay.

I'd love to see figures on this. Based on my experience i would have thought 95%+ of diners tip 10% or more, whether or not it is automatically included. Based on posters here, perhaps I am wrong.

I always tip in restaurants and prefer it when it is automatically added. Never quite sure what to do in hotels though - we stayed at a gorgeous hotel in the Lakes last week and I asked them to add 10% to the total bill. What do most people do? You don't tend to tip at the table when eating in a hotel. These sorts of conversations are interesting as we enjoy cruising and mainly travel on American cruiselines where around $18 dollars pppd is added to your bill but people generally still tip more - sometimes considerably more. Some tip the bartender $2 for every single drink. Very different culture.

How long before people are forced to declare it as income, taxed / IN and taken into account for benefits?

But why shouldn't they? If they work in a job that is mainly NMW, BUT they routinely often get given extra money as part of a longstanding socially-enforced custom, which has the effect of bumping up their earnings quite considerably, why should they pay a lower effective tax rate than somebody else on NMW who does actually only take home NMW?

It's not even like most of the tips are given as a response to amazing service (not that that counts when assessing earnings for tax) - most tips are given because people (as we've seen many times on his thread) assume that you are expected to hand over more money, without even considering whether or not you should.

In general, the economy works on the basis of the more you earn, the more tax you pay - but you still get to keep the majority of the extra earnings, so you should always be better off the more you earn. Nobody has to pay any income tax at all if they don't want to - as long as they're prepared to earn no more than their personal tax-free allowance.

No, not really. Without the tipping system (and I still believe that most guests in the restaurants I eat at accept that it is a system) the wages would increase and the prices would increase and on average employers would be unaffected. Those people who tip like me would be slightly better off. Those people who don't tip would be worse off. It's pretty clear who benefits from the voluntary tipping system!

But don't you see how much more honest and transparent that would become? Instead of subbing low-paying employers who are then able to drum up more turnover by advertising artificially-low prices - with the caveat that, if the customer doesn't then bump it up as expected, they aren't the ones who lose out - you would then be supporting respectable employers who pay their staff a fair guaranteed wage and present an honest upfront price for you to decide whether or not to give them your business.

They do have to declare them as Income, they are taxed and are taken into account for benefits.

The forum in general isn't Europe only or more specifically UK only, but is is kind of UK default.

This thread was started in UK context, it was acknowledged many times here that American situation is different (starting with lower minimal wage for tipped proffesions in America, which isn't a thing in the UK/Europe).

You are welcome to the discussion, just be aware of the context and don't call everyone else spoiled brats :)

Ok. Thank you for the info. Just to be clear, I called majesty, not a spoiled brat. Oh I also said. entitled. Now I'm not sure what I said, but spoiled brat doesn't sound like me. :-)

It is not. What you may not know it that servers MUST pay buss boys, runners, hostess etc... 90% of restaurants, hotels have this policy. Doesn't matter if the guest tips or not. So, you think is it fair for the server to pay theirs coworkers at the end of the day for serving you?. It is SO unfair. I understand your position regarding tips but you should think about the servers paying from their own pockets for serving you and next time you go out, go to a place where your presence doesn't cost money to other people.

This is the common practice in the US. The server has to tip out a percentage of his or her sales, not tips. So a non-tipper will cost them money.

Seriously...you need to stop going to restaurants, and eat at home. This is how waitresses earn a living. So this poor waitress waited on you and your friends all night long; and because you got your little keester been out of shape... You punished her? Everybody knows a minimum of 10% is standard. Nowadays most people tip between 15% and 20%. So even 10% was hitting way below the belt. Most of the time these are management rules, not the servers. You should have complained to the management. Not punish this poor waitress. Shame on you! The right thing to do would be to go back and give her a cash tip; and apologize for your bad attitude. Cuz personally... I would never want to see you in that restaurant ever again, if I was her.