Reply to Tipping/service costs in DC

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Who gets the service charge?[/quote]

Unless the restaurant is explicit that it is collected as a tip and divided among the service staff it goes to the business. It *might* go towards increased salaries for staff or providing benefits but if the restaurant doesn't say this is what it's for then there is no guarantee that this is what it is for.

Which is why I oppose service charges as a practice. In fact as a general matter I oppose a business charging a specified price for goods and services and then tacking on additional fees and claiming these are going to costs that are somehow not baked into the price. The only time I think this is appropriate is if it is done for a temporary cost that the business expects to go away at which point the service charge will also go away. Like the "Covid charges" that some businesses imposed to cover special costs related to operating during the pandemic (though there is also a transparency issue there as many businesses charged Covid fees and also obtained loans to help with the same costs and then those loans were forgiven -- these businesses in some cases pocketed the difference at the cost to both taxpayers and customers).

I am very tired of being told how hard it is to run a profitable business and that businesses have no choice but to tack on a bunch of fees just to stay in the black. At this point in time this is an indication you should just go out of business. Which maybe you will as customers catch onto this ruse and stop frequenting businesses that treat the bill like some kind of charity fundraising event. You're a for-profit business. I'm giving you money in exchange for goods and services. I'm not donating to a good cause.[/quote]

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