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higher wages for the servers... by the customers. Fnbs

Went to a restaurant in LA today and when I got the check I noticed that it was a bit higher than it should be. Then I noticed this 18% service charge. So… We, as customers, need to help pay for their servers instead of the owners paying their servers a living wage. And on top of that they have suggested tip. I called bs on this. I will bet you that the servers do not see a dime of this 18% service charge. [deleted a word so it wasn’t a grammatical horror to read]

Heavybell ,
@Heavybell@lemmy.world avatar

If the service charge is always there then just raise prices by 18% and stop misleading people ffs…

WoahWoah , (edited )

deleted_by_author

    •
    bobo ,

    Because the price on the menu then appears lower than what the customer actually pays. It’s completely misleading.

    WoahWoah ,

    Ohhh, that’s a really good point. I didn’t think about that. This hasn’t happened where I live. Thanks for helping me understand. That IS really misleading.

    SnowBunting ,

    It also guilt trips the customer into accepting the unexpected added price.

    raptir ,

    And even if it’s on their printed menu, you might look at the menu on Google Maps and see one place has a dish for $20 and another place had the same dish for $24. You go to the cheaper place and sit down and see the 18% fee. Are you necessarily going to leave and go to the other one?

    Shush ,

    I would probably leave and just go home. I wouldn’t be in the mood to eat anymore.

    aesthelete ,

    It’s usually on the menu but it’s in fine print under an asterisk.

    It’s alarmingly common (though not usually as high as 18%), and ought to be fucking illegal.

    atticus88th ,

    Also it costs far too much for the owner to reprint all those menus with higher prices. And to update all the food delivery apps… fuhgeddaboudit

    CmdrShepard ,

    But they can afford to reprint the menu to include a note about the 18% service charge or when their item prices increase ‘organically?’ This is a BS excuse.

    sukhmel ,

    My guess would be that it was sarcasm exactly because of the reason you explained. It contradicts really so hard it almost makes it obvious (not completely, it seems)

    aesthelete ,

    It has nothing to do with the cost of re-printing menus, because they have to do that anyway to put the legalese on there about the percentage surcharges.

    new_acct_who_dis ,

    Because no one agreed to pay that when they were ordering. Imagine being a on budget for a night out and getting this extra charge outta nowhere

    WoahWoah ,

    Yes, that makes total sense. I just hadn’t thought it through.

    IdleSheep ,

    Imagine you only have 10 dollars on you and buy a 9.99 item off the menu because of it, only to discover at the register there’s a 20% service fee. Not very a very pleasant customer experience, is it?

    Thank God where I live this is completely illegal. The prices on the menus are always the final price.

    aesthelete ,

    Thank God where I live this is completely illegal. The prices on the menus are always the final price.

    ^ This is the answer folks…this type of bullshit legalese in restaurants should not be legal.

    Anticorp ,

    You own that restaurant. Don’t you?

    WoahWoah ,

    Caught me.

    PraiseTheSoup ,

    $22.50 for kids shells? Please tell me where this is so I can never go there.

    dangblingus ,

    Yes. If the minimum wage went up to something livable, do you think the restaurant owners are going to eat the cost or pass it along to you? Them putting an 18% surcharge, assuming that that’s an auto-gratuity that goes to the server, is the exact same as if you were begrudgingly tipping 18%. That being said, that should be announced somewhere as an official company policy. If you want a servant to make and bring you food, you have to pay for that luxury. You’ve just been paying below actual market price for that luxury since you’ve been born.

    bobo ,

    Read the check, it’s not an auto-gratuity. The gratuity is still expected. This is a service charge. A service charge that is likely not listed on the menu. It’s bullshit. Raise the price of the food and don’t hide costs that you are charging the customer.

    TruTollTroll ,
    @TruTollTroll@lemmy.world avatar

    So they think they are a hotel providing a venue and service? I worked in Hospitality as HR and the service charge made sense for the weddings and events we did… But a smaller restaurant using a ‘service’ tax that they most certainly do not feed back to the employees, is predatory… and as the consumer eating out… I would be disinclined to tip now… If they really used the service tax for the employees, the tips would not be an option, because the staff would be adequately compensated… They wouldn’t need toa sk for the tips… This restaurant wants it’s cake and to eat it too

    CaptionAdam ,

    Turns out my local casinos restaurant does this aswell but its called a forced gratuity.

    Arthur_Leywin ,

    I’ve stopped going to restaurants because of shit like this.

    iix ,
    @iix@lemmy.world avatar

    My favorite Mexican place that I’ve been eating at for 15+ years is still offering a fair price. I’ve never really paid attention to prices before but it’s been a real kick in the balls lately to dine out! My wife and I can eat there for $20. Vegetable fajita and garden quesadilla with waters. Their delicious salsa is made in house too, not sure about the chips. The kitchen doesn’t always hit a home run but most of the time it’s phenomenal. Not kidding, I feel like I’m taking advantage of them, $20! That’s literally what I paid on date night in 1994.

    falkerie71 ,
    @falkerie71@sh.itjust.works avatar

    I live in a Asia where service fees of 10% are normal with no tipping culture.
    I can see why people may think 18% is too much, but honestly tipping culture should just be gone entirely. Waiters shouldn’t have to rely on customer tips, which can vary for different reasons even ones that may be outside their control, to earn a living wage.

    ChicoSuave ,

    Forgive my ignorance but what’s the difference between a service fee and tip in this context?

    intensely_human ,

    A tip is consensual

    Shush ,

    You must pay the service fee.

    Also, usually the fee is a stated amount - with tip, you pick the amount (though you get guilt trippee into picking higher amounts).

    Squander ,

    OP post the QR code, I would love to know what restaurant this is, so I can stay clear away.

    melonpunk ,
    @melonpunk@lemmy.world avatar

    www.jonandvinnys.com/service-charge

    tabris ,

    At its core, the service charge is about driving change in our industry – helping ensure our business can thrive in challenging economic environments and compensating each member of our team in a more equitable way – in a way that uniformly increasing our food prices doesn’t allow for.

    I don’t understand what the difference is between adding the service charge and increasing prices. Literally no justification for this, just a “trust us, bro”.

    roboticide ,

    The difference is “We don’t want to raise the listed prices on our menu.”

    krebstar ,

    What a joke. Just raise your prices and put it on the menu. I would refuse to pay that. That was not listed anywhere before you ordered.

    qwertyWarlord ,

    Those prices are already wack, holy cow

    ChicoSuave ,

    It’s California pricing with added 9% inflation.

    some_guy ,

    That was not listed anywhere before you ordered.

    I don’t know why this logic hadn’t occurred to me until you said it. Strikingly obvious argument for raising prices on the menu.

    aesthelete ,

    They aren’t doing that because nobody can do the math in their head to figure out what the actual cost of the menu items will be. Much better (for them) to hit you up with a charge at the end and blindside you with percentage surcharges.

    It’s alarmingly frequent in California and should be fucking illegal.

    spaghettiwestern ,

    A list of L.A. restaurants doing this shit from a Reddit sub:

    docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/…/edit#gid=0

    Anticorp ,

    Of course it’s in L.A.

    ZzyzxRoad ,

    They definitely have it in other California cities too. And not just in restaurants.

    A chain resale/consignment hipster shop in NorCal started adding a percentage service charge years ago with the same excuse, and you’d only find out about it if you looked at your receipt. The fucked up part is that they also raised their prices so high that I couldn’t shop there anymore. It’s one of those buy/sell/trade clothing stores, so the whole point was to pay less for decent clothes. But if they’re already raising prices significantly, why the fuck do they need yet another charge to pay their workers.

    I also think they really must believe it makes them seem “progressive” somehow. Like “oh look, we’re on the workers’ side!” and they hope no one eating/shopping there will think about it any more deeply than that.

    Anticorp ,

    That doesn’t say “on the worker’s side” though. It says anti-consumer and selfish. They’re not willing to pay any more if it means they make a little less, they’re just comfortable taking more money from other people.

    intensely_human ,

    You realize 100% of the money they’d use to pay their workers more would come from consumers right?

    Anticorp ,

    Of course it would. It doesn’t have to (Dan Price is an example of a different model), but it would. At least by wrapping it into the prices consumers can clearly see that increase, instead of this shoddily hidden tactic.

    aesthelete ,

    It could come from profit margin, but that would require the higher ups to not be greedy assholes.

    stereofony ,

    Buffalo Exchange?

    blterrible ,

    The alternative is that they just jack up the menu prices to accomplish the same thing. This is just the equivalent of pricing things at $19.99 because people don’t understand that really means $20 which sounds like a lot more money.

    spaghettiwestern , (edited )

    This is just the equivalent of pricing things at $19.99 because people don’t understand that really means $20 which sounds like a lot more money.

    So let’s say you checkout at the grocery store tomorrow and your $100 of groceries has a $20 “employee wellness” fee tacked on. You see that and pricing an item 1 penny below a round number as the same thing. Really?

    blterrible ,

    No, you’d leave the store having paid $120 for groceries with no wellness fee tacked on.

    spaghettiwestern ,

    Did that make sense in your head?

    blterrible ,

    Yes, and in reality. When you charge more per item for goods and services so that healthcare is included, they cost more.

    spaghettiwestern , (edited )

    Yes, and in reality. When you charge more per item for goods and services so that healthcare is included, they cost more.

    A red-herring response if I’ve ever seen one.

    This has literally nothing to do with the tactic of hiding additional fees so customers don’t see them instead of just increasing prices, or the difference between pricing something a cent below a round number and adding a wellness fee at checkout.

    I try to avoid playing pigeon chess, but it seems that’s what I’ve been doing.

    roboticide ,

    No, because the difference of seeing a $19.99 price versus a $20.00 price is that I see it up front. That’s more honest than tacking on a $21.50 hidden fee after the fact.

    linearchaos ,
    @linearchaos@lemmy.world avatar

    Yeah, please if you’re going to charge me 40 bucks for a salad just put 40 bucks on the menu. Or 39.99 If you must. I greatly prefer that over listing the salad as $30 on the menu, only get blindsided by a separate $10 service charge on the bill. Matter of fact can we just go to putting the entire cost of the item on the menu?

    Everything should be on the wheel and out the door pricing. Doing any other way is absolute bullshit.

    blterrible ,

    You’ll get no disagreement from me!

    Landmammals ,

    Glad to see they’re paying a living wage and the tip went back to being an optional gratuity instead of something the server depends on to make their rent.

    Neve8028 ,

    Yeah. While a service charge is annoying, when you eat in the US you already know that you’ll be adding on an extra 20% regardless. If you don’t have to leave a tip at the end, you’re paying the same amount that you would have with the tip.

    Anticorp ,

    Let the manager know that you won’t be returning and make sure they understand why, then never return.

    jordanlund ,

    Are you paying your servers a living wage or not? If yes, I’m not tipping.

    infyrin ,
    @infyrin@lemmy.world avatar

    You know what, I’m going to go the opposite of this. Why in the hell are you dining out and paying THAT much to dine out? Here I am griping because recently I paid $12.83 because a chinese buffet usually charges me $11.76 but then I see receipts like this shit and realize that maybe I am better off.

    If I was paying triple digits for food, I’d be making damn sure it had better be the best damn tasting food served to me or I wouldn’t leave until it was served to me.

    God, people need to cook more. You can gather so many ingredients for the amount you’re paying and have several weeks of meals for the month.

    hglman ,

    You got it chef; no one gets one over on you.

    aesthelete ,

    Go to a high COL city, and you’ll be paying $50 or more for your Chinese buffet.

    MyNameIsIgglePiggle ,

    In Aus these days if I go to the supermarket to buy food for dinner, just one meal for 5 people, I am not walking out of there spending less that $80

    aesthelete ,

    Yeah I mean the supermarket isn’t a bargain either.

    The only real “deals” I get nowadays are from Costco, and you still wind up spending multiple hundreds of dollars you just get more for your money that way.

    StinkyFinger ,

    Maybe you would. I’ll be cooking rice at home.

    aesthelete ,

    I wouldn’t actually. I don’t like buffets.

    imgonnatrythis ,

    https://lemm.ee/pictrs/image/19172c10-3e39-44e8-9535-c684d60c0b4e.webp

    chris2112 ,

    OP said LA so while these numbers are a little high they’re not out of the ordinary for a high CoL American city. I live near NYC and prices at fairly mainstream not particularly upscale restaurants and Manhattan are similar to this. As long as you’re living within your means there’s no reason to avoid doing things you enjoy

    kep ,

    Your comment basically assumes that everyone lives in poverty.

    Which, granted, isn’t that far off from the truth, but the reality is that it takes an extremely poor person to think like you - to the extent that someone dropping $25 bucks on mac and cheese for a kid probably doesn’t share your sentiments.

    Lanfordr ,

    The crazy thing is, Los Angeles’ minimum wage is already 16.78, and restaurants are required to pay servers at least minimum wage in California. None of this lower minimum for tipped workers. So they are adding at least 18% to that, unless the 18% service fee brings their workers up to minimum wage, which is dishonest, but wouldn’t put it past a restaurant to do. After all that, they have the gall to sti ask for a tip!?! It’s beyond bs.

    jcit878 ,

    if the waiter gets all the 18% (lol) thats more than an hours wage for a table. and then tip expected on top.

    Sorry, the whole system over there is just bonkers. drop the tips and charges and just pay fair and be done with it. that actually seems like a semi reasonable minimum wage too tbh, although without any tipping could go a few dollars higher

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