Pretty sleazy of the company to do something like this. If I see a tip/gratuity listed on a restaurant bill I assume (as I'm sure 99.9% of other patrons do) that it's a tip/gratuity meant for the server(s) who attended to me. As a result I typically won't add anything more unless the amount of the tip/gratuity is low or I felt the servers were exceptionally attentive. This sounds like nothing more than a scam to rip off the serving staff. I hope they win a huge judgment against this company.

Bravo to the employees for being recognized and being made whole.

Im always a very generous tipper, 16-20%. But it really gets under my skin when I get stuck with these so called automatic gratuities fees. I understand trying to protect from bad tippers but it still just doesnt feel me right.

Tips are the real scam. A person doing their job gets paid to do their job by the employer. You do not tip the girl at the corner store, the guy fixing your car etc.

I never understood the idea of tipping and rarely do it.

This might have something to do with working my ass off in a restaurant in the kitchen just after high school. I watched the servers counting their tips at the end of the night, they made more then me and I was doing the work.

/ i do tip the girl who cuts my hair because they have a gross job, touching peoples heads all day.

16-20% should be a fairly standard tip amount, certainly not "very generous", seeing as how 15% is considered minimum for satisfactory service and 18% is the minimum amount for good service. At least that is how I was raised. Maybe I'm just a very generous tipper too?

@kable2: Yes, however, they are paid by their employer presuming that the employee will be recieving tips.

In fact, minium wage is less for people in professions that typically recieve tips.

@kable2:

You got screwed over in high school and you're taking it out on waitstaff now? I might recommend staying inside and only venturing out to McDonald's for a nice dinner out.

Society thanks you in advance.

@Bizdady: It only angers me when
1. It's not obvious they added the gratuity, and I tip "twice".
2. It's used as an excuse to give poor service because you're tipping anyway.

@kable2: The few times I've worked "service" as a server our tips were shared with the kitchen; as a bartender my tips were shared with the bouncers.

I used to be an enthusiastic tipper, sometimes leaving as much as 50% just for the fun of it. I also often eat alone when travelling on business so I sometimes left large tips because I felt like I was taking up a table that should hold four people.

That all changed when I dated a waitress and she told me that many restaurants pool all the tips and distribute them evenly to all waitstaff and sometimes the bus boys and dishwashers. This destroys the entire concept of tipping! Good and bad waitresses receive exactly the same amount in tips, so why try to provide excellent service?

Since I learned of this I am a straight 15-20% tipper. I don't care if the waitress rotates my tires while I eat, I never leave more than 20%.

@kmn842:

Yes, you are a little generous. Seems like the tip percentage keeps creeping up. Particularly if you ask on the Internet.

I'm concerned about the legality of posting an altered image of a commercial site. It's clearly not a parody of that site if most of us are not familair with the company

@TechnoDestructo:
I'd have to imagine that people who earn tips are working hard to promote the idea that 15% is too little. It's not. Tips should be based on a dollar per service basis, not a percentage of the bill. It's inane to pay the staff at Smith and Wolensky's 10 times the staff at Waffle House.

Here's an obvious question: If World Yacht believed they were exempt from offering the gratuity to the waitstaff, were they also PAYING the waitstaff more than minimum wage or a competitive salary?

Someone please explain to me why I should pay a companies workers with a tip. Doesn't the employer pay his workers?

Should I tip the worker at walmart who shows me where something is? How about the girl who rings up my bill, is 10% good enough for her?

How about a tip for the guy that takes my money at the gas station.

Alot of people with hard jobs dont get tips. Waiters do not have a hard job but expect tips????

If a bill contains an automatic tip, I'll have a word with the manager to have him kindly remove the fee or be sued (since I didn't order it, I don't HAVE to pay for it). Reason being is because I feel to ask and assume I am going to tip a certain amount is arrogant, and because I don't trust that the entire tip is going to go to my server (as is the case here).

As a result, I ALWAYS tip in cash. And if I feel my server may not receive the cash (maybe the bus person is responsible for cleaning the table and collecting the tip money from the table) I will even go as far as to discreetly slip the cash to the server personally.

I've waited tables, I know what it's like. Servers depend on the tips they receive to live, as usually their wage is at or below federal minimum.

@kable2: The girl cutting your hair is probably getting paid a lot more per hour (less tips) than any server you have and depends on them a lot less.

Also, I hope (for your sake) that you don't have the same server more than once.

I just wish everyone was paid a living wage and tips went away. It seems to be a constantly confusing and arbitrary system.

@kable2: "Someone please explain to me why I should pay a companies workers with a tip. Doesn't the employer pay his workers?"

Here's your explanation: many states allow restaurant employers to pay their food servers LESS than minimum wage, because it is assumed the tips are going to compensate for the lack of wage.

That's right, LESS than the federal minimum wage, which currently is $5.85/hour.

So no, many employers don't pay their servers (nearly enough, anyway), which is why you should tip your food server.

Well in Canada minimum wage is minimum wage regardless of job.

Will someone please explain to me why a person that walks out with a plate of food deserves a tip, but the guy at walmart that lifts the heavy boxes or the girl at the gas station doesn't.

@bdgbill: Rotating your tires?! That was the funniest thing I've read all day! :-) Thanks for the chuckle!!! :-)

@kable2: No one is going to force you to tip. Its a matter of etiquette. In America, it's considered rude not to tip. In other countries, it's considered insulting to tip.

If you want to be a dick and not tip, go for it. Its a matter for you and your server.

@bdgbill: I don't care if the waitress rotates my tires while I eat

Is that some kind of sex term? I'm getting old and I have trouble keeping up with this new fangled lingo.

I have to chuckle at the people that post asking why have to labor under the horrible burden of tipping at adult restaurants. I guess the idea of wearing shirts, not belching or going peanut-hunting up their anal cavities while in public is a tremendous disservice as well.

Aptly explained by the many posters here, though.

McDonald's or eating at home in your stained tank-top is perfectly acceptable if you haven't learned that when you're in public, you behave (and tip) differently than when belching on your couch.

You get the feeling they're the people that turn off the lights at home and hide from children during Halloween as well? Thought ya did. :)

@kable2: Why does a heiress of a tycoon deserves to make more from dividend payouts in a year than a guy who drives a forklift at the dock makes in his lifetime?

Here's the thing - "deserve" has nothing to do with anything. When you say one person deserves something more than another person, you're arbitrarily placing a value on something based on your own feelings.

Now, if you're asking why a waiting tables pays more than occupations that you believe to be more deserving, don't look at how much work they do, look at what they're worth to the employer. All else being equal, a good waiter is harder to replace than a good dishwasher or a good salad guy, all else being equal. Manual labor may seem like "more" or "harder" work than waiting tables, but customer interaction requires a skillset that's more scarce than the one required for manual labor.

@kable2: I suspect you rarely tip, because I can't imagine that you actually go out much to places where it's expected. Or you're not telling the truth to make your point, or you don't go to dinner with friends who would shame you into tipping.

I will say, though, that the tipping culture in this country has gone a little nutty. Every counter in every store has a little tip jar now. Even the bus that I take to the airport usually has a hastily written "tips are welcome" sign taped in the front. And these guys are paid regular salaries. The pressure to tip everywhere has gotten to a bad place.

"I don't tip because society says I gotta. I tip when somebody deserves a tip. When somebody really puts forth an effort, they deserve a little something extra. But this tipping automatically, that shit's for the birds. As far as I'm concerned, they're just doin' their job."

"Look, I ordered coffee. Now we've been here a long ****ing time, and she's only filled my cup three times. When I order coffee, I want it filled six times."

@aaron8301: It should be noted that if a server does not make tips equaling minimum wage in the final outcome of their salary + tips, the restaurant is required to pay the difference so they're making minimum wage. That said, a server who's not making at least minimum wage in tips will not be employed very long.

mandatory tips that don't get passed on to servers? Time for punitive damages. This is extra douchebaggery at its worst.

@kable2: Even though you're a pathetic cheapskate, I hope for your own sake you don't ever eat at the same place twice.

1) If you're a repeat customer, and someone recognizes you I guarantee they will remember you. And not in a good way.

2) You're buying yourself into a death spiral of bad service. If you return to a restaurant where someone recognizes you the person likely to end up helping you is the new guy who doesn't yet know you're a pathetic cheapskate.

Lastly, while tipping may not make a lot of sense to you, it might help to just think of it as a custom. Society is full of them, and people generally abide by them for the sake of living together in a civilized manner. But hey, feel free to blaze your own trail.

@kable2: The guy at Wal-Mart makes minimum wage or better. The waitress does not.

@kable2: We're not talking about Canada. Read and be informed before posting.

To be fair, this isn't a restaurant, but a catering business. Should those employees even be receiving tips? It's not a restaurant. The bartender should receive cash tips at the bar... but the table monkey that only brings your salmon or beef? I've never gone to a wedding or other organized function where anyone but the bartender were tipped.

Note: not justifying the failure to distribute the "gratuity" that was charged. It seems that the bigger crime was charging a gratuity, period.

I think that in an industry where a tip is relied on as a form of wage. The employer should be held responsible to make up the difference in the event a server doesn't make minimum wage after a shift.

@balthisar: I believe with weddings wedding gratuity is usually added to the bill.

I agree with you that the bigger crime was charging a gratuity. maybe the customers should sue the company as well.

@balthisar: Agreed. I don't care whether the company pays their staff tips or not—if they don't, New York is surely a great city to find another job waiting tables (or catering). But don't add a "gratuity" to a bill if you're not going to give it to your employees. I don't understand how the court doesn't consider that to be a deceptive practice.

I rarely tip, because I rarely go out to eat in the US. When I'm in Japan or Korea, I do all the time...and they actually pay people there, and don't have the custom of tipping.

@avantartist: Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe that in some places that is the law.

@Mr_Human: I agree that tip jars have gotten out of control. I knew someone who worked in an ice cream shop where they were not paid less than minimum wage (as a waiter or waitress would be), and would get angry if customers didn't put money in the tip jar! I feel like I have to contribute to the tip jars at places I get coffee or snacks regularly, because apparently it's "expected" now, and these people handle my food.

I also never know how much to put in a tip jar. If you buy a $3.00 drink, do you have to put a full third of the total price more into the tip jar? Do you have to give a 25% tip to someone who scooped an ice cream cone for you, or can you just toss in a few coins?

I definitely think this dining yacht company was deceptive, though. If the bill says "gratuity," who isn't going to assume it's going to the servers? And where did it go, since the servers didn't get it? Sounds like the company is just charging extra money for the service customers are already paying it to provide.

The yacht company lied in their description by calling it a "gratuity" rather than "extra charge". What surprises me is that any court ever ruled in their favor.

FWIW, a few years ago I was the office manager for a chain restaurant. I used to help out at lunch time and a few of the servers tried to share their tips with me. I told them no, I was making a helluva lot more than they were since I knew they were pulling down the federally-sanctioned slave wage of $2.13/hr.

Not a typo. TWO dollars and thirteen cents an hour was the legal rate servers could be paid.

I always tip. And if a server does an especially good job, I always make sure to find their manager and tell her/him so. Maybe on their next review they'll get that gigantic 25 cent raise.

@CMU_Bueller: Yes, it's the law -- I believe federal. On the other hand, most waiters don't have the resources to pursue a case against an employer who violates the law. It's like when a big chain store forces people to work unpaid overtime or whatnot -- they know they're getting screwed, but what's the average cashier going to do about it? If you complain, they'll tell you to go work somewhere else (where they might be doing the same thing).

On Halloween I go to a nice restaurant ( and tip ) to avoid the trick-or-treaters. So there.

Never having worked in the service industry or had to pay taxes for the kind of work, would the workers who were not given the tips be taxed on the expected tip value? Or would there have just not been any reporting at all?

I was in South Beach last weekend and ate out a lot. All the restaurants added an automatic 18% to the bill.
Thing is, when you give a credit card and the slip comes back it just has the bill amount a line for the TIP, and your total.
And if you didn't pay attention and see the 18% on the bill already, you'd tip on top of the tip.

Thing is, a lot of international tourists don't know about tipping, so they have to add it on.
I basically don't see a good way to do this either way.

IMO automatic gratuities/tips are just wrong. You earn your tips by good service.... its just as simple as that. WHy should I be MADE to pay an automatic gratuity when I get bad service?

Tipping ettiquette has just gotten out of control these days.

You dont automatically deserve a tip.... you have to work & earn it with good service.

One thing I have to mention is that I HATE fast food places that have tip sections for the credit card bill/reciept. If I am picking up a pizza at the local pizza hut.... I am not giving a tip for it & dont like to be made to feel as if I was a POS as the cashier/waitress is staring at me while I sign my reciept & dont leave a tip. If you were waiting on me as I ate inside the restaurant.... I'd leave a tip If I recieved good service, but if I am just walking in the door to pick up my pizza.... no tip is deserved/earned.

I learned a lesson a while back... always tip in cash & write in "cash tip" (or put in "no tip" if you arent leaving a tip) on the credit card reciept's tip section.... because I have caught waitresses giving themselves bigger tips when I went through my credit card bill at the end of the month. ANd I raised absolute HELL about it!

as for the article... I find it disgusting that the company was screwing its servers & am glad the servers won.

I know a few waiters that hate automatic gratuities just as much as customers do. One of my friends works for a restaurant that adds an automatic 15% for table of 6 or more, but he rarely adds it to the bill because if he does he'll probably only get the 15% tip, but if he doesn't add it the party may tip 18 or 20%.

@bdgbill:

Yeah, but it is ok to ask the server to see if they keep it or pool it so you can reward them based on their performance.

My friend, who used to be a server, said she used to keep her tips, but after a change in management, they changed the tipping rule for all tips to be pooled.

I am a server. I make $4.00 an hour. And if you leave a good tip, you will be remembered. And if you leave a bad tip, well heaven help you, you will be remembered as well. And you really wouldn't want to be eating what I put on your table. And the cheap tip that you leave that won't even give me one tank of gas? You'd better NEVER walk into my place again.

@kable2: You said "Waiters do not have a hard job but expect tips????" This is possibly the most ignorant part of your comment (which is indeed an accomplishment).

I've never waited tables, but I know people who have and I've seen plenty of people being waited on in restaurants. It is one of the most difficult jobs out there--physically exhausting and a psychological challenge putting up with people like you, who apparently think you are there to be their slave and then don't tip at all. I don't know where you live, but I hope it's not the U.S. because you're an awful example of respecting the American ethic of hard, honest work.