Has anyone had a 5% service charge posted on your bill for a party under 6 at dinner?
 

I went out to dinner tonight with my wife and daughter. The bill came and it was $79 plus tax...plus 5% for what was labaeled as a service fee.

I have seen a minimum 15% service charge for parties over 6 at restaurants before. However, I have never seen this.

This is not the type of place that the waiters will get stiffed so I doubt this a waiter supplemental charge.

SF is as socialist as Russia so we force our restaurants to pay the $10+ minimum wage to even tipped help. Plus, every employee must have health care.

So, this might be a way that the restaurant is charging their patrons for their extra expenses. If I were the restauranteer I would just raise my prices 5%.

I used to be a waiter incollege and high school so I have been in the trenches. However, I reduced my tip to 10%. I thought if it was a fee that was going to the waiter in cash I wan't going to give more.

If it wasn't...then he just got a lot of extra benefits that I just paid for and it has to come from somewhere.

Has anyone else seen this on their bill?

Why not just ask the place what the charge was for?

Yeah, I would have asked before just stiffing the waiter.

I guess I could of asked but it would not have changed my tip. If they would have said the $$$ went the the waiter or the restaurant would you have tipped the full 15%?

Yes, because I tip 20% :)

I'm a server at a polished casual restaurant and honestly haven't a clue why that would be on the ticket - maybe just general gratuity?
You definitely should have asked the server/MOD about the charges before leaving a ****ing 10% tip on a $80 check
:shake:

lol 15%? How old are you?
it's 20%

right on!

Never for number of diners, but for less than a certain bill total. Though rare I have seen that.

I am 37 and for better service I do tip 20%. I bussed at EBT in 88. I waited in Hawaii at many restaurants in '88-91. And, at Cork N Cleaver in '92.

My belief is that 15% is expected. 20% is deserved.

I do not consider a 10% tip on top of a 5% service charge a stiff.

My guess is that this is a way for the restaurant owner to pass along the extra cost of our cities communist policies to the patrons and allow them to make the decision if they want to tip more.

Quicksurfer: Do you get $10/hour and health bennies on top of your tips? hat is what the SF law is.

When I waited I got $2.01 an hour plus tips. If you are going to standardize the pay...what is the incentive to provide better service?

More money? IMO

2.13 an hour - the rest is what i make
no benefits.

Oh, that is the service charge added to checks for obvious cheapskates. Looks like the waiter guessed correctly.

If I was a cheapskate I wouldn't have ordered the $39 bottle of wine.

The laws in SF require all workers to be paid $10/hour and for all employees to be provided with health care.

As I was paid when I waited...and as QS is paid a low hourly rate with the opportunity to make a lot more if you turn tables faster and with a friendly demeanor to earn more.

Who is going to bear the extra costs for the new benefits the wait staff is getting? Are they forcing a change in the tip paradigm?

This restaurant is passing their extra cost to their customers, not in the form of higher menu prices to their customers.

They could have easily raised their prices by 5% and I wouldn't have even noticed.

If you think I stiffed the waiter. Would you tip 20% on top of the 5% they charged me? Then are you going to start tipping 25% to all the KC waitreresses who don't get $10/hour and health care?

I would have asked what the charge was and then tipped the waiter accordingly, usually around 20% for good service.

I'm just guessing, but the extra 5% wasn't going to the server.

The first thing I thought when I saw service charge was...this is money that is going to the house...but the more I think about it I go back and forth. That could go either way.

There is a possibility it is a charge that goes to the house and goes into paying for things like linen and silverware and all of that jazz...who knows...

At the country club I make 3.15 or 5.50\hr depending on the time of day. Everything is done on member charges. It is a bit unique that 15% automatically comes out of every single ticket and into my paycheck...there is an additional gratuity line if someone wants to add on more.

It does.

$10/hour instead of $2.13. Health Care which most restaurants don't bear the cost of (outside of SF.) It also then washes through the tax system and gets more bureaucratic.

There is another benefit they will be getting in June. 1 day off per month for sick leave. When I was a waiter if we were we missed our tips. With all of the subsidies how is a restaurant supposed to make it?

Funny thing about the law that is an only in SF thing.

Average person in SF is not a family person. So, the law states that if your kid/wife gets sick you can take a sick day to take care of them. Too liberal for me ...but whatever.

SF does not limit these sick days to family members. So, if your neighbor, friend...whoever gets sick then you are allowed to take the day off to take care of them.

I have this vision of a guy going door to door looking for someone who is sick to take care of...so he can have the day off.

Who pays for all of this? I pay over $5k per year personal property tax per year for my house.

SF mandated health care for every employee in SF and the minimum wage to cover tipped employees.

Restaurants will be forced to make a decision on raising prices or adding this BS charge I have never seen on a bill before (service charge.)

By the replies I am reading it seems many of you will tip 20% on top of the 5%.

My guess is that if businesses start imposing service charges then tips will be reduced by an equal amount.

Then all of the income that waiters earn will be recognized by the IRS because it is hourly pay instead of untracked tips.

There will be no reason for a waiter to give you better service because they make their cash from hourly rate so we will end up dining in Moskow '88.

Basically its the end of the world as we know it.

I wouldn't stress, hospitality staff get atleast $18 per hour here and service is still great when you go somewhere that you would expect good service.The incentive is there to generate tips to...make more money.

If that 5% wasn't on the menu or any of the signage then I believe my response would have been an emphatic "f**k you".

Also, if my waiter/waitress was making $10/hr + full benefits they're going to have to do f**king back flips to get more than a 10% tip. With payroll expenses like that you're already paying that guy a ton. It's wrapped up in the expense of your meal.

The country club gigs are always a sweet deal if you can find one. Blue haired old ladies paid for Bob Dole's first car.

No kidding...I'd be tempted not to leave a tip at all if that's the case. I don't tip the cashier at a retail store. If my waiter is paid the same, then why should I tip him (or her)?

The Chef of the restaurant from last night was on Iron Chef tonight.

He served:

Fried Tripe
Squab (with the head split open so you could suck the brains)
Shaved snails

On the menu last night was Tuna Heart. Also, rabbit.

We had pork pasta with red sauce.

The Chef lost.

It has been good to me at this point in my life.

just givem a call tomorrow 415-641-4500

:p I prefer shaved clam. :p

:)

joke from sopranos tonight: blind guy walks past a fish market and what does he say? "hello, ladies!"

Um..... because if you don't tip them anything then in a way you're making them pay to wait on you.

I don't think a lot of people realize that even if you don't leave a tip most restaurants force waiters to tip their bartenders /host staff etc. based on a percentage of sales. If you leave them nothing you basically made them pay to wait on you.

At a restaurant I used to work for I had to tip out to my bartender 2% of sales, the host 1% of sales, and what they called an expo (a person who garnishes the plates) 1% of sales as well. If a guest had a $100 tab and left nothing I'd still be forced to pay 4 dollars for that 4% of sales even though I never received a tip on it.

The whole tipping system sucks. %20 is unreal.

We had a service charge applied on top of a mandatory 18% gratuity the other day. We had seven people. Who was the seventh person, you ask? My 3 1/2 year old daughter. Food was less than great and not worth 50% of what we paid. We won't be going back there.

Tipping is of da debil.