Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 19:54     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
Nope, not paying tip on top of service fees. Expecting 40% is outrageous.

Wait staff are getting min wage now which is like$17-20, iirc. Tipping was only because they used to be paid far below min wage. Now that they're getting a salary, no more tips. You don't get to double dip, F that.

Dining out in DC sucks SO so bad these days, specifically because of stuff like this. I hope everyone stops going and the entire restaurant scene in DC collapses. They treat their customers like exploitable cash cows to be bled dry these days. They can rot in hell.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 19:45     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
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...
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 19:43     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You aren't supposed to tip 20% now that they raised wages. These servers are no longer making a tipped wage.

Here’s the thing- the manager guy at brasserie said the service fee was not the tip
And said we leave the tip separately. Which seemed like BS. Like at two Amy’s they are super clear that the fee is the tip.
So it just was very uncomfortable and I just felt acutely like it was screwing the staff. So I will not go back there and I now see that specific restaurant seems to be a problem
Since it’s the only place named in the thread by 3 people. Anyway, I felt like I had pretty much sorted out the problems after the measure 82 or whatever was enacted but this really felt snakey and also put us on the spot tbh.


It’s not the tip because there is no tip - the waitstaff is being paid a regular salary not a tipped salary.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 19:39     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
The restaurant should raise prices if it needs to. A 20% service fee is the tip. I would not leave more and will definitely avoid that place
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 17:08     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
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.


Maybe they should have thought about it before deciding that waiting tables was a path to wealth and prosperity - nobody forces anyone to be a waiter or waitress. The free market can and does address this. If restaurants can't find people to work for the wages/tips offered, they'll either go out of business or will increase the compensation offered. If people want to work for the offered compensation, why should the government decide on their behalf that they need to earn more, and use legislation as a cudgel to distort market forces?
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 16:58     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
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.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 16:28     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
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.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 16:25     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
People "disrupted" the service industry. That means they ruined it. If you don't want to work for tips then don't wait on tables. Problem solved.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 15:29     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
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.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 15:05     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
Anonymous wrote:I would refuse to pay the service fee if it wasn’t disclosed ahead of time.
I’d leave a cash tip.


Same here.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 14:40     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
I don't pay more than the service charge. That is, indeed, the charge for being served. Aka a tip.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 14:38     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
Chadwicks in Old Town did this to me and my wife out to dinner with another couple last Saturday . Four people total. Only pointing this out because we weren't 6 people where this usually kicks in.

They auto added the 20% and had the nerve to add a tip option on top of that. I did not tip and I probably wont go back.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 13:03     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
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.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 13:01     Subject: 20% service charge which is not the tip?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You aren't supposed to tip 20% now that they raised wages. These servers are no longer making a tipped wage.

Here’s the thing- the manager guy at brasserie said the service fee was not the tip
And said we leave the tip separately. Which seemed like BS. Like at two Amy’s they are super clear that the fee is the tip.
So it just was very uncomfortable and I just felt acutely like it was screwing the staff. So I will not go back there and I now see that specific restaurant seems to be a problem
Since it’s the only place named in the thread by 3 people. Anyway, I felt like I had pretty much sorted out the problems after the measure 82 or whatever was enacted but this really felt snakey and also put us on the spot tbh.


He’s right. It’s not the tip in that it does not get distributed to servers like a tip would. But it does serve to increase their salary.