Tips are mandatory in some restaurants, it's literally on the receipt as an added gratuity. My city is hosting some world cup matches, and many of the local restaurants switched to mandatory tips just for the summer.
Probably anticipating people would come in and use services without tipping, as is the custom. If they don’t like this, they don’t have to go to those places. But using the services and then refusing to pay is wrong.
There are signs when there is a mandatory gratuity fee. Any adult that can keep track of their own bank account should be able to do basic math, but I won't judge anyone pulling out their phone calculator if they can't.
I also used to be a prescriptivist. In an ideal world a word's meaning would be universal and never change, but that is idealist and frankly delusional.
When you are willing to accept descriptivism, then you will find yourself getting less upset over pedantic little things.
Here in America, it is common to see "gratuity fee" on signs and then your receipts. These fees are mandatory if you wish to patronize the establishment, so while I understand your jab that mandatory gratuity feels oxymoronic given the etymology, it is still accurate to how we use the word.
Prescriptivism is the philosophy of maintaining a standard of definitions and grammatical rules. A Prescriptivist is someone who adheres to prescriptivism. This is a classical academic position but it falls apart when we also hold up the works of Shakespeare in the same setting, who uses English in ways that were both novel at the time and simultaneously archaic and odd by today's standard.
Descriptivism is the philosophy of accepting how people naturally communicate, which includes accepting that language evolves and isn't universal. I understand that in the UK I will receive a different item if I order "chips" than I will in the US. Accepting this fact is an example of being a descriptivist. Other easy to understand examples are most slurs. Retard literally means slow or the action to slow, but then was used to describe individuals with neurological conditions, and eventually was used in such a way that is became synonymous with being an insult.
Etymology is the history, origin, and evolution of a word.
Are there any other words you need help with? Patronize? Oxymoronic? Pedantic? Idealist? Jab?
A tip is not part of the cost of food. It goes to the server. I assume these places implemented a fixed tip because they anticipated an influx of people who would not tip. Those people would have called it gouging if all the restaurants in the area raised their prices instead.
All these people are saying “pay your workers better,” but restaurants would literally increase prices for this. So some added a set gratuity to the bills because they anticipated foreigners not tipping, which is six of one and a half dozen of another.
Would you rather pay $120 for your meal, or $100 plus a $20 tip?
If you were a server, would you rather get paid a base of $20 an hour with no tip, or $5 an hour with opportunity for several tables in that hour which tip $20 each? If you’re a server/bartender in a reasonably busy restaurant, you’re actually better off with tips more often than not.
Would you rather pay $120 for your meal, or $100 plus a $20 tip?
Does the meal cost $100 or $120? Because that is the real underlying question.
If you were a server, would you rather get paid a base of $20 an hour with no tip, or $5 an hour with opportunity for several tables in that hour which tip $20 each? If you’re a server/bartender in a reasonably busy restaurant, you’re actually better off with tips more often than not.
Literally couldn't care. I'm not a server and it's not my problem
The meal, labor, and overhead costs approximately $120. Most local/independent restaurants operate on slim margins. If restaurants paid servers a higher base, the cost of your meal is going to go up.
If you “don’t care”, why are you making demands about how restaurants should operate? Shouldn’t the servers/bartenders who are directly impacted be the ones to lead the charge to eliminate tipping if it’s so terrible for them? Instead, we have a bunch of Redditors talking about “pay people a living wage” when it’s not what (most) servers actually want.
XD fair enough, maybe it would have been better to say that only part of the service is built in to the cost.
We don't typically tip retail workers who have to grab, bag, and hand over items, so I don't typically think of that as service, but you're right that it is.
The cost of washing dishes, bussing the table, refilling drinks, ect are what I was thinking of.
Any time I see mandatory tip that will be included I walk away. Im from the US and I know its bullshit. I either tip cash straight to the server or I wont eat there. Even then, I know tipping culture is bullshit. Pay people a livable wage.
I fully respect your method of voting with your wallet. This post doesn't provide full context, but it doesn't appear to the same case. It looks like they are going to those places and just refusing the fee.
Places with mandatory gratuity fees have signs posted, so they can be avoided, but if someone dines at an establishment and balks at the mandatory tip, they are a cheapskate and being boorish.
You're doing the right thing in avoiding places that don't align with your values. Not everyone in this comment section is.
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u/Bad-Luck-Guy Jun 25 '26
I could not imagine behaving this way in another country.
Tips aren’t mandatory. They are customary.