A pizza place in Jacksonville, Florida has decided to pay its servers a higher wage and in order to pay for it, automatically add a 15% tip to each order. Signs are posted and you can ask the server to take the tip off the bill if you want.
From FirstCoastNews:
We took a chance at doing this. This could alienate people; we understand that, but it’s really important for us to take care of our people,” said Demarco [manager of Chicago Pizza.]
….
“We want to raise our level of service. We want to be a better experience for the guest. The only way we can do that is to create professionals and professionals require a certain amount of money,” said Demarco.
The restaurant, of course, runs the risk of losing money on people who would have tipped more than 15%. They seem to think it will balance out, however.
What do you think of this? It’ll save you some math, at least.
Jacksonville’s Popular Chicago Pizza Restaurant Makes Tip Automatic [First Coast News] (Thanks, Justin!)
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Just throw tax and tip into the menu price and be done with it.
Fine with me. I don’t eat there.
I think they’ll lose business on the people who are too embarrassed to have the tip removed if they want it removed. And they’ll lose business from a lot people who tip more than 15%.
Also, this kind of screws the employees in that they’ll have to declare all of their tips. Will the wait staff be dinged if x amount of customers have the tip removed? I could see me removing the tip and then tipping with cash.
This is just a way to pay the employees better w/out cutting into the restaurant’s pocketbook.
I HATE automatic tips. I’d probably just boycott the restaurant too. What I don’t mind is when the receipt lists what would be a 15%, 18% and 20% tip.
My sister used to work at Unos in NYC. (I don’t know about now, but back then the tip wasn’t automatically added). One time she was serving a large group, and they only left like a 2 or 3 dollar tip. Her coworkers felt so bad for her that they gave her a share of their tips.
For large parties, I understand adding the tip as things can get a little confusing come payment time; but for every single order? I don’t think so. I know it says that you can ask for it to be removed, but I would feel like a cheap sh*thead… I don’t remember which restaurant it is, but there’s one that calculates “suggested” tips at different percentages on each receipt. Maybe that would be a better way to go so people won’t feel put off or obligated…
This is not the first place to do this…there are a hole bunch of places in Miami that do the same thing.
“Florida has decided to pay its servers a higher wage and in order to pay for it, automatically add a 15% tip to each order.”
Just curious how this is them deciding to pay a higher wage? I get the math, but is this not more along the lines of:
We have decided to let you pay our servers a higher wage.
Just wondering, because I hate the subject of tipping, of course we can ask to take it off, but then that instantly labels us as cheap. I am sure this is going to bring out the tippers as all these threads do, but I personally find it hard to believe there are as many people that tip 20-30% on their meals.
Why don’t they start to just pay minimum wage? and abolish tipping? Start that trend…I enjoyed all of Europe for that. I go in, order and get great service and it is to be expected. Many upper end Italian places were offended at the tip, it is the job of the restaurant to give great service and would do no less.
Just my opinion, though, the angst that goes into tipping is beyond belief.
A tip is earned. It is not a right. If the owner wants to pay his people better, raise prices on the product and pay the servers.
By the way, the tip has nothing to do with the quality of the food. The cook/chef never gets tips.
Another idea from Europe. In Belgium (and other European countries I’ve visited), the servers are actually paid a decent wage. In return, tipping is not really done. If the service is really good, you might round up to the next Euro, and if it’s exemplary, you might even leave an extra Euro on top of that. Otherwise, there’s no tipping.
The theory behind tipping is that it might encourage servers to give great service to the customer in exchange for a reward. Unfortunately, this often doesn’t work for a multitude of reasons:
1. A server gives bad service and gets a bad tip. Instead of seeing the direct cause/effect relationship, they assume that the person was “just a bad tipper.”
2. The server gives excellent service and gets a bad tip because the person IS a bad tipper.
3. The server gives bad service and gets a good tip because the person feels bad leaving a bad tip.
No system is perfect – but the variety is good.