Tipping - join the debate

Tuesday, 15 July 2008

Share
Close
- Digg
- del.icio.us
- Facebook
- Reddit
- Google
- Stumble Upon
- Fark
- Newsvine
Print
Email

Do you work in a restaurant? Do the staff at your local restaurant get to keep their tips? Should service charges simply be scrapped, and staff paid higher basic wages? Are you happy to leave 10 per cent or 12.5 per cent - or more? Should these discretionary charges be added automatically to bills? Is it socially acceptable to have a service charge removed from your bill? Should breakages be paid for out of the staff's tips? Should tips go straight to the waiter or waitress who served you, or should other restaurant staff - including the chefs - be given a cut?

Have your say below on any general issues. If you have points on a specific restaurant or employer, rather than post below, please email features@independent.co.uk with "Tipping" in the subject line.

On the comments below, only your name will appear as you enter it in the first field (below right). Your email address or other details will not appear with your comments.

Comments

( Leave a comment )

tipping

80ate wrote:

Monday, 13 April 2009 at 10:43 pm (UTC)

I am a waitress, I get paid minimum wage (after the credit cards tips I have accumulated have been used to top up my salary). I believe that the tip earned is a reflection of the service recieved. In general customers are generous and add tips on their credit cards, little do they know that we never see this money in the form of a tip.

I have been told I will be fired on the spot if I tell customers where the "add gratuity" option on credit card machines.

This is very unfair and misleading to customers who mean well.

I hope something will be done. At this moment the manager has hired "mystery shoppers' to check up on whether we accept credit card tips or not.

I hope the loophole will change soon.

Link | Reply | Thread

Service Charge is misleading

erostome wrote:

Friday, 7 August 2009 at 06:22 am (UTC)

At Maxwells Restaurant Group, as many others, also the waitstaff is paid �2.80 per hour, and also keeps only 40% of their service charge.
This practice is misleading for the intentions of the diner, who thinks the service charge is a service charge, not a cover charge.
You can't call service charge to anything that is not fully just that.

Link | Reply | Thread

Tipping

cardiffc wrote:

Saturday, 5 September 2009 at 08:46 pm (UTC)

As an expat who needs to know the tipping traditions in countries worldwide, I wish wait staff were just paid to do their job without reliance on tips. I worked my way through university in the USA as a waitperson (I earned quite a bit), but the discretionary factor is not always connected to service. Sometimes it's ignorance of customs, sometimes that the people are cheap... but the minumum wage is NOT sufficient to cover living expenses! And the practice in the UK of the restaurant absorbing tips (not going to wait staff) is horrendous! No, chefs should not have a cut-- they should be paid for their skills. ohmygoodness- PLEASE correct this dysfunctional system!

Link | Reply | Thread

Tipping

lilcherribabe wrote:

Sunday, 4 October 2009 at 12:13 pm (UTC)

I think it should be illegal to take tips if you are the owner, unless of course if you are the ONLY people working. I think that this is wrong and should be stopped. I have been a waitress for 3 years, and I'm only 16, and I work hard. Last night i had 5 couples come up to me and hand me money, but if the owner is there then I have to put it into the tip jar. I'm the only waiting staff at the restaurant because it is so small, and the rest is just a couple who are the owners. I think it should be illegal and i should be able to keep the money. I think it is appalling, I know that if my parents go to a restaurant and leave money, they want it to be for the staff who wait on them, not the owners who stand over the waiting staff!

Link | Reply | Thread

Taking my tips away

vatrogasac wrote:

Friday, 9 October 2009 at 12:15 am (UTC)

A few days ago my managers suspended me cos I took my tips ( few pounds) into my pocket. They said that I`m stiling money from the company which is The Royal Exchange. Also last week I have received letter where they said that I`m gonna get �1.20 per hour and a rest of my wage is gonna be added from the tips.

Did I make a mistake by taking a money or they doing illegal things?

Link | Reply | Thread

Tipping 2

vatrogasac wrote:

Friday, 9 October 2009 at 12:16 am (UTC)

Link | Reply | Thread