Do you tip on tax at restaurants?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in DC and eat out a lot. I was tipping 22 percent on post tax amount of the entire bill, as that has been standard for many years. Anyone who tips less than that should feel awful for how you have treated the people who have served you.

Because of inconsiderate people, however, DC has changed. Now there is a 20 percent automatic service charge on pre-tax amounts at most restaurants. And there is an extra tip line. It has been confusing for me. But, I think I am going to start adding 1/4-1/2 of the service charge as a tip.

No, the service charge is different. You're supposed to tip 20-22% on top of that. That is the standard. You should feel awful for how you have treated the people who have served you.

I don’t know what a “service charge” is but it sounds a lot like a charge in lieu of a tip. I’d definitely find out from the server or manager what it covers prior to leaving my tip though. If the service charge wasn’t earmarked for the waitstaff I’d leave my tip in cash and in the servers palm. And then I would never return to that restaurant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in DC and eat out a lot. I was tipping 22 percent on post tax amount of the entire bill, as that has been standard for many years. Anyone who tips less than that should feel awful for how you have treated the people who have served you.

Because of inconsiderate people, however, DC has changed. Now there is a 20 percent automatic service charge on pre-tax amounts at most restaurants. And there is an extra tip line. It has been confusing for me. But, I think I am going to start adding 1/4-1/2 of the service charge as a tip.

No, the service charge is different. You're supposed to tip 20-22% on top of that. That is the standard. You should feel awful for how you have treated the people who have served you.

That is not standard. DCUM must be filled with extraordinarily good tippers.

More likely poseurs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've held the line at 15%, pre-tax, on the food and soft drinks. If there's alcohol, then we'll calculate the tip based on what it would have cost as a soft drink; i.e. iced tea or Coke.

Truly astonishing level of being a cheapskate. Imagine going through your bill with this kind of a fine-tooth comb to figure out how much you can skimp on paying service workers.

Why can’t the restaurant owner pay decent wages?

[Anonymous]

The new service charge paradigm in DC is a complete racket. What if it is only a 5% service charge? Do you add a 15% gratuity on the post-tax total to make up the difference?

Some restaurants have added a footnote in the menu that the service charge goes to kitchen and other admin staff (I.e. not your server). Do you tip 20% or reduce by x% to opining the server for the owners economic decisions!

Others I have noted have a 3-5% charge that is basically (paraphrasing) a pandemic related upcharge due to rising food costs and lost businesses (Farmers Fishers Bakers in Georgetown is one example). Do you include that in the tip or tip on top of that?

Why does the restaurant not just increase the price of menu items by a flat 5% across the board? Because then patrons would think the prices are too high. The above service charge methods seem a bit disingenuous unless they are truly replacing pooled / individualized tips.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some restaurants have added a footnote in the menu that the service charge goes to kitchen and other admin staff (I.e. not your server). Do you tip 20% or reduce by x% to opining the server for the owners economic decisions!
.

*punish* not opining

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've held the line at 15%, pre-tax, on the food and soft drinks. If there's alcohol, then we'll calculate the tip based on what it would have cost as a soft drink; i.e. iced tea or Coke.

Truly astonishing level of being a cheapskate. Imagine going through your bill with this kind of a fine-tooth comb to figure out how much you can skimp on paying service workers.

Why can’t the restaurant owner pay decent wages?

Because if they raised their prices to reflect a higher wage in lieu of tips, cheapskates like you would go to other restaurants that do not do this, where you could instead continue to offer miserly tips.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't tip on tax or alcohol

Really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In DC I believe the tax amount is 9% so I just double the tax and add it to the bill.

Arlington is 10% so doubling it makes it very easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've held the line at 15%, pre-tax, on the food and soft drinks. If there's alcohol, then we'll calculate the tip based on what it would have cost as a soft drink; i.e. iced tea or Coke.

Wow you are extraordinarily cheap. Are you very old? Do you tip to the penny or round up?

[Anonymous]

Never.

I also didn't tip for the Panera to go order I placed online at lunch and felt zero guilt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:you tip on pretax amount and subtract alcohol as the restaurant has already over priced it for profits

This is asinine reasoning and you're just screwing over the server. Hope you feel good about yourself.

Of course the alcohol is overpriced, but so are the steaks and seafood. Are you going to subtract the tip on those as well? What’s left?
Tip on the whole amount and be generous.

Of course everything is marked up, how else would the restaurant cover overhead and make some profit for the owner. It's not a charity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Never.

I also didn't tip for the Panera to go order I placed online at lunch and felt zero guilt.

You should feel guilt about this.

[Anonymous]

You do not do a full tip on top of an Initiative 82 service charge. That would be almost 50 percent of the bill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:you tip on pretax amount and subtract alcohol as the restaurant has already over priced it for profits

This is asinine reasoning and you're just screwing over the server. Hope you feel good about yourself.

Of course the alcohol is overpriced, but so are the steaks and seafood. Are you going to subtract the tip on those as well? What’s left?
Tip on the whole amount and be generous.

Of course everything is marked up, how else would the restaurant cover overhead and make some profit for the owner. It's not a charity.

PP here. That’s my point, if the restaurant didn’t mark things up they couldn’t stay in business. If someone doesn’t like the 2-3x markup on a bottle of wine, then don’t go. But don’t punish the waitstaff because you don’t like the owners markup.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've held the line at 15%, pre-tax, on the food and soft drinks. If there's alcohol, then we'll calculate the tip based on what it would have cost as a soft drink; i.e. iced tea or Coke.

Wow you are extraordinarily cheap. Are you very old? Do you tip to the penny or round up?

We use a tip calculator on our smart device, thank you very much. We don’t believe in supporting tip inflation. A 15% tip is for excellent service and it should be proportional to the basic food being served. If we decide to splurge on steak or lasagna, for example, we usually round down to the cost of a deli sandwich. The service is no different between high end foods and regular ones. Same as with alcohol.