Are you suppose to tip an additional percentage on top of enforced gratuity?

[phreakah]

i never tip on top of the added in gratuity

 

[KarenMarie]

Originally posted by: BigJ

Originally posted by: KarenMarie

most rests... at least all the ones i have worked in or eaten in... will allow the server to forego the auto grat. a word with the server or manager and the grat can easily be overturned. but if the server chooses to stick with the autograt, then there is nothing wrong it adding to it.

also... there was a huge debate on whether or not the auto grat is even legal. i dont remember the outcome to that. since grat is a gift... above and beyond the check, is it enforceable? and since it is only enforced on large parties... is it discriminatory?

i dont remember what the legal outcome of that was... anyone else remember?

I'm going to have to take your word on this one. In the three restaurants I've worked at, there has never been auto-gratuity besides for parties over 15. And even then, they were usually scheduled ahead of time, with the condition that the gratuity is non-optional, as it is part of the bill.

q?
if the ppl booking the party had said that they did not want an auto grat but would take care of the server... would the mananger refused to book the party? just curious.

i remember when the autograt was first put into play here in nj. it was 1888 and i remember being all pissed off about it because i was averaging at least 25% tips on my checks. i knew that if ppl saw the 15% autograt.. chances were that is all i would get and i would lose a lot of money. so, a bunch of us asked the management if we could tell the customers that it was supposed to be there, but they could request it not be enforced. since we were required to tell them that the autograt was gonna be there, we wanted to let them know that we were not happy about it and didnt like it either.

management told us that since they could not legally force ppl to pay a tip... hence telling them beforehand... it was fine if we delicately told them that we would prefer it not be there either and take our chances.

i do not know if things have changed since then. i do know that when i again worked in the tipping industry, it was in nashville and ppl did not normally tip high anyway and the autograt went to 18% so i did not complain.

i do know there was a case in an italian rest in NYC... i read about it here on OT ages ago... where a rest tried to add it and the service sucked so the customer refused to pay it. the rest owner took the customers to court for it. i do not know what the outcome was.

 

[buck]

Originally posted by: KarenMarie
usually, when in a rest that says... parties over a certain amount get auto % gratuity.... i give the server a choice. they can have the auto grat and not a penny more, or they can forgo the auto grat and be tipped on preformance. i also let them know that i worked in rests. on and off for over 20 years.

normal tip for me is 20% for decent service, more for good service. it is up to the server.

if it is an establish that just puts grat on, no matter what... i will throw the server/bartender a few bucks on top if the service is good.

but i am not in the habit of just giving away money without a really good reason.

Great idea! I like it.

 

[rahvin]

Originally posted by: KarenMarie
i remember when the autograt was first put into play here in nj. it was 1888 and i remember being all pissed off about it because i was averaging at least 25% tips on my checks.

Damn, you're old.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: BigJ

Originally posted by: loup garou

Originally posted by: mugs
If a restaurant wants to force me to tip a certain percentage, that's all they'll get and not a dime more. If they want to leave it up to me they would almost always get a bigger tip unless the service is piss poor.

Same here.

So you penalize the server for the restaurant's policies?

It's rarely an issue for me since I don't usually eat with large groups... but it's typically 18% on a party of 8 or more, which is a pretty good tip. Like KarenMarie said, the waiter could forgo the automatic gratuity, in which case I'd tip whatever I want. I consider it kind of insulting to be forced to tip a certain amount, although I understand the reasoning. I also wonder if all of the relevant taxes are being paid on that gratuity - including the employer's share of FICA. I doubt it.

I generally tip pretty well - 20%+, 25% when I go to a local restaurant where the waitress treats us very well (on all-you-can-eat wing night when the wings usually come pretty slowly, she puts my orders in two at a time). But one time I got stuck with a different waiter, and he got stiffed on a tip right before we got our check (I know this because he yelled across the restaurant to the hostess that he got stiffed - pretty unprofessional). When we got our bill he did us the favor of writing "15% = $X.XX" - but he had calculated a 18% tip. I felt bad for him since he had just gotten stiffed, so I left the tip that he had written down, but by writing that he screwed himself out of a 25% tip.

 

[isasir]

The only time I tip more than the enforced gratuity is if I'm drunk and didn't notice gratuity was already included.

 

[KarenMarie]

Originally posted by: rahvin

Originally posted by: KarenMarie
i remember when the autograt was first put into play here in nj. it was 1888 and i remember being all pissed off about it because i was averaging at least 25% tips on my checks.

Damn, you're old.

My daughter was born in 1984...l and i was over the current legal drinking age at the time.

 

[neutralizer]

Hmm... forced gratuity = not a penny more
15% tip for satisfied service
20% tip for excellent service
5-10% for bad service.

That's how I tip.