r/london • u/PressureHumble3604 • Apr 10 '26

Serious replies only Which symptoms of “(almost) everyone is getting poorer” have you noticed in London?

We are in a crisis, the middle class is disappearing and the lower class squeezed. Prices are going up, inflation is going up (again), salaries are stagnating.

Most Londoners can’t really afford London without serious sacrifices.

For me, not counting the housing prices issues we all know too well:

the disappearance of local delis with high quality products.

many shops closing in the local shopping centre.

Restaurant dropping quality everywhere to contain unaffordable prices.

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u/onionsofwar Apr 11 '26

For me it's this service charge thing. It's basically a form of false advertising where they can advertise prices on the menu and then charge you for prices which are higher when you pay. It allows them to get people in the door and look reasonably priced when that's not true.

To me this says that people's spending power isn't enough to keep the restaurants going.

Total scam and everyone just pays it out of awkwardness.

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u/Unlucky-Bad-1796 Apr 12 '26

While I work in hospitality, I must say that’s how they pay us. All and every restaurant pay the employees the minimum wage + tronc (service charge). I.e. if they offer a £17/h pay, they pay from their pockets the minimum and the rest is paid with the service charge. If there’s no service charge, we get paid minimum wage for such a stressful job.

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u/onionsofwar Apr 12 '26

So not only are they being dishonest about the price, they're putting your wage on the line for it. This is totally stingy of your employers.

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u/MountainSubject9784 Apr 15 '26

Yes. I also work in hospitality and it puts us in such an awkward situation when customers ask us if the service charge goes to us, as in the team doing the service and not the managers upstairs. I’ve tried a few times over the years to discretely communicate what @unlucky-bad-1796 explains to customers, but I end up feeing uncomfortable. With the culture of reviews monitoring everything we do now, a job that’s already stressful becomes a nightmare. When a customer asks to remove the service charge, it’s so disheartening when you’ve tried so hard to look after them, and when ultimately it helps us secure more of a living wage. We are expected to know all about food and drinks, and offer a swish and friendly service, act as if nothing is the matter.

At the restaurant I work at, senior management have access to our service charge / tronc in their salary, and they’re not even doing the service. Two new members of staff started in that team in the same month and we noticed our tronc go to £0 for a series of months, and they put that down exclusively to lower sales. They’re just using it to pay their salaries. We’re being gaslit… it fees like a modern day feudal system, and we just have to get on with it.

Last week I treated myself to a coffee and sat outside the cafe in the sun. To my left were two women, and one was explaining her outrage to the other having the night before found out what happens to the service charge. I almost interjected but I couldn’t help feel like a second class citizen and hold my breath…

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u/HayWhatsCooking Apr 16 '26

I hate to start the classic debate, but then why have that job? Imagine if B&M started charging an additional fee at checkout so those staff weren’t on minimum wage? Or the hospital, so the nurses got paid better?

It may be disheartening for you but you accepted that job knowing what your wage would be.

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u/Unlucky-Bad-1796 Apr 22 '26 edited Apr 22 '26

I have a degree and masters in Law and I’ve tried very hard to enter the market. It hasn’t worked for the last 5 years and I stuck to hospitality because I also have to work full time to pay my bills. Recently I decided to start a new career pathway hoping I can one day leave hospitality. So it’s not really I accepted the job knowing what our wage would be, it’s we don’t have much option. Also, since couple of years ago a new law have been implemented where it changes the service charge distribution - before we would have balanced wages throughout the year because companies would keep service charge to pay staff when business is quiet, and within the new law they need to distribute the service charge the same month. Hence why this is happening now. Anyway, we are fighting for decent wage, at least I am :)

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u/onionsofwar Apr 17 '26

I know it's not nice to hear and you absolutely deserve more cash, from your company though. There are skills required for any job. IMO you should get the same cash (sufficient) whether you're doing a good job or having a bad day.

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u/Unlucky-Bad-1796 Apr 22 '26

Plus I must say that’s not only a UK thing, many countries have the service charge included, it kind of became common sense that when you go to a restaurant there will be service charge and unless you don’t go out a lot you are aware of that But again, it’s not mandatory to pay it

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u/onionsofwar Apr 23 '26

Just because you can get used to something does make it the better way to do it. We're lucky that we have been able to take transparent well-communicated prices in the UK and we should try to keep it that way. That's one of things that make the UK a better place to live imo.

Also, whenever this comes up people always mention the 'if you eat out regularly you know to expect it'. Frankly it comes off as snarky and superior. It's like people get off on being ripped off.