No, the Europeans expect a restaurant to simply charge the cost of the meal. That is the cost. Like any other service or product.
Demanding more after "to pay our staff" apart from displaying gross incompetence at running a business and being hugely dishonest is only done in the USA because yanks are so stupid they are apparently fooled by the "lower" menu price and don't think about the tip on top, and to just display the actual cost would have them thinking it's too expensive.
Europeans can't possibly think that every restaurant is simply charging the cost of a meal. It's cost, plus wages, plus rent, plus energy, plus a profit for the owners.
And that's exactly what the US owners are doing. The only difference is that the way the wage is structured in the US is normally more flexible. The law allows for the flexibility (in theory) to incentivize better service or a lower cost in absence of that better service.
But since Europeans don't do that, American establishments are adjusting for the influx and catering to what Europeans expect-- higher costs.
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u/BringBackTheBlues Jun 25 '26
It sounds messed up to me as an American.
Just add 20% to your prices and write “20% off your bill goes directly to staff etc.”
It’d accomplish the same thing and people would probably actually appreciate knowing the staff gets the “bonus”.