20% service charge which is not the tip?

[Anonymous]

Meanwhile everyone is bagging on the waitstaff, of course. Classy.

This waitstaff is agreeing to work at a restaurant that is trying to squeeze extra 40% out of customers, knowing full well what's going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am just so shocked that the benefits of an increased minimum wage law are accruing to owners and management. Boy, who could have seen that coming...

Meanwhile everyone is bagging on the waitstaff, of course. Classy.

nobody is bagging on the waitstaff. It's very much blame to management and everyone tried very hard not to still the server who has no say in all this (except for leaving these terrible restaurants and using their skills at a different one!)

Wrong. There have been multiple posts in this thread saying "if you don't like it, get another job!" and "how stupid do you have to be to think serving pays well?" This development wasn't the fault of the servers, but they are the on front line and everyone has an opinion on how much they should get paid.

If you don’t like it, get another job!!

And there's the empathy and maturity I've come to expect on DCUM.

Oh no! Do you mean to say that disgruntled servers can’t leave their job and work in a different line of work?

That is so sad, this feudal system that I didn’t even know about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just went to a place that added 15%. I was told that was shared between the staff so if I want, I could tip directly to my waiter. I added 5% to make it 20, which is what I usually tip.

They also used some online platform for bills. There was no option to not use it, and they charged $4 extra to cover that. I know that’s not a lot, but that also rubbed me the wrong way. I will pay what you tell me but I don’t want to feel like I’m nickel and dimed. And I should not have to pay extra just to pay my bill.

Take it up with the Republican Party that is destroying the economy.

How do you think servers can survive on what they make? How do you think small restaurants can survive when people won't go out because either they can not afford it now because of Don the con's stupid policies?

Not like Project 2025 doesn't have more than one chapter on this.

They should have thought of that before they voted for Trump.

Yet the system that has been there forever in California is working and that’s pretty much as blue a state as there ever was. I honestly think this is a DC specific problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Meanwhile everyone is bagging on the waitstaff, of course. Classy.

This waitstaff is agreeing to work at a restaurant that is trying to squeeze extra 40% out of customers, knowing full well what's going on.

They need a job. The restaurateur is the one making the decisions. Do you also judge grocery store cashiers when prices go up? Suggest they should find another store to work at, one that doesn’t gouge the customer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am just so shocked that the benefits of an increased minimum wage law are accruing to owners and management. Boy, who could have seen that coming...

Meanwhile everyone is bagging on the waitstaff, of course. Classy.

nobody is bagging on the waitstaff. It's very much blame to management and everyone tried very hard not to still the server who has no say in all this (except for leaving these terrible restaurants and using their skills at a different one!)

Wrong. There have been multiple posts in this thread saying "if you don't like it, get another job!" and "how stupid do you have to be to think serving pays well?" This development wasn't the fault of the servers, but they are the on front line and everyone has an opinion on how much they should get paid.

If you don’t like it, get another job!!

And there's the empathy and maturity I've come to expect on DCUM.

like every other tipping thread - it's not the customer's job to pay the wage ESPECIALLY if there's 20% already tacked on. Servers are the ones who are most opposed to any sort of set wage because they currently benefit greatly with tips. Every other country has somehow figured this out

It wasn’t the servers’ decision to charge a service fee. It’s the owners. Be mad at them.

[Anonymous]

It's a scam, they dont publish the service fee so you think he price is affordable. There is a law that states service fee for a restaurant must be disclosed up front
Basically take their price and multiply by 20%
https://www.libertedc.com/menus/#dinner
Which they do "A 20% service charge will be added to all guest checks and will be used to cover our increasing operational costs. Service fees are not tips. Tips are not expected but always appreciated."

[Anonymous]

The worst thing is wait staff at most restaurants didn't want minimum wage raised. They made more when it was tipped wage with tips.

30 years ago I worked at a mid-range steak restaurant in Central Virginia. I'd work a four hour shift and get $75 in tips. No way a restaurant would pay that, even now, as an hourly wage.

[Anonymous]

They need a job. The restaurateur is the one making the decisions. Do you also judge grocery store cashiers when prices go up? Suggest they should find another store to work at, one that doesn’t gouge the customer?

I don't blame the waitstaff either. But I'm also not going to essentially tip 40%, to cushion them. For me, there's 2 parties in the transaction of going out to eat - the restaurant (incl waitstaff) and the patron(s).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am just so shocked that the benefits of an increased minimum wage law are accruing to owners and management. Boy, who could have seen that coming...

Meanwhile everyone is bagging on the waitstaff, of course. Classy.

nobody is bagging on the waitstaff. It's very much blame to management and everyone tried very hard not to still the server who has no say in all this (except for leaving these terrible restaurants and using their skills at a different one!)

Wrong. There have been multiple posts in this thread saying "if you don't like it, get another job!" and "how stupid do you have to be to think serving pays well?" This development wasn't the fault of the servers, but they are the on front line and everyone has an opinion on how much they should get paid.

If you don’t like it, get another job!!

And there's the empathy and maturity I've come to expect on DCUM.

like every other tipping thread - it's not the customer's job to pay the wage ESPECIALLY if there's 20% already tacked on. Servers are the ones who are most opposed to any sort of set wage because they currently benefit greatly with tips. Every other country has somehow figured this out

It wasn’t the servers’ decision to charge a service fee. It’s the owners. Be mad at them.

20% service fee should go to them and they're fine right? I mean a guaranteed 20% seems pretty nice especially in DC when you have tourists who might not tip to the US standard. The 20% service fee that isn't actually a service fee should basically be prosecuted for wage theft

[Anonymous]

But to address the OP directly, as others have said - THAT IS THE TIP. Sorry you wasted $40. If I see a 20% surcharge I'm not tipping 1 penny more even if it was the best meal of my life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:3 of us went to dinner and had a wonderful sweet waitperson. When the bill came it wa a brought by the manager (?) and it had a 20% service fee added on. As my husband was putting his card out he said (to confirm) oh the tip is included already? And the man said no it’s not the tip this is the service fee because we had to raise prices to meet the new DC minimum wage. So then when the bill came there was a line for “additional tip”. We gave our waitperson the real tip in cash but
1. it felt like the restaurant is stealing wages and that a lot of people probably assume the tip is included in the bill and then the waitperson gets unintentionally stiffed,
and 2. Our dinner for 3 (with 2 glasses of wine) cost us almost 240, so we will not ever go back- the bill for the meal was
148 pretax
18 tax
30 (20% service fee)

Is this 20% service fee a real thing?
40 tip

Where have you been?

All over the country, this is happening.
Seattle, Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Maryland, Virginia, Missouri, Mississippi, everyone of these places I have personally sat in a restaurant in the last 6 months where my bill included this.

Thanks Republicans. Not only will you be the cause of the demise of many small businesses the economy as well.

You know where it's not happening? California, where servers have been paid at least minimum wage for years. CA has no shortage of restaurants, nor a shortage of servers, so it seems like it's a workable system.

This is a greedy cashgrab on the part of the restaurant owners/managers, especially since those extra fees do NOT end up in their server's pockets. Name and shame any place doing this, because it's total bs.

This. I was a server in California and I made the state minimum wage plus tips. A good living for a college kid, and the restaurant owners drove luxury cars. Not my problem if DC restauranteurs are crappy business people.

[Anonymous]

we never tip anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The worst thing is wait staff at most restaurants didn't want minimum wage raised. They made more when it was tipped wage with tips.

30 years ago I worked at a mid-range steak restaurant in Central Virginia. I'd work a four hour shift and get $75 in tips. No way a restaurant would pay that, even now, as an hourly wage.

$75 for 4 hours of work is nothing. Even in Central Virginia.

[Anonymous]

I think if restaurant owners expect people to pay 40% on top of menu prices, they should just say that. Say there's a 40% service charge, and share half with the waitstaff.