London has recently overtaken Tokyo and Paris to become the world's most expensive city for eating out, yet thousands of waiting staff have their minimum wage subsidised by tips given by customers for good service, often meaning they take a pay cut when on holiday or off sick.
The vast majority of restaurant employers take a cut of tips, and all rely on tips for their income. Many employers openly keep a chunk of service charge and credit card tips to boost profit margins.
Popular restaurant and hotel chains including Pizza Express, Garfunkels, Deep Pan Pizza, and Frankie & Bennies are just some of those where members report that the customer subsidises the employer's obligation to pay the national minimum wage. Unite is campaigning for a change in the law to close the loophole that allows employers to take advantage by using tips to pay the minimum wage.
Waiters and waitresses' tips on tipping:
Ask the restaurant owner or manager where the money will go if you leave a tip or pay service charge on your bill; Ask if the tip you leave is in addition to the national minimum wage; If the tip or service charge goes to staff, leave it in cash rather than credit card.
Many customers would be horrified if they knew their service charge went towards paying hard-working waiters and waitresses the minimum wage, rather than rewarding good service. Eating out in London is an expensive business yet restaurants are raking it in from high prices, sometimes cheating the customer and the worker.
"Tips and service charges should always be considered an addition to a decent living wage. As well as urging a change in the minimum wage law that allows employers to take advantage, customers can also help by asking the restaurant where the tips go."
― Mark C, Monday, 1 October 2007 15:56 (seventeen years ago)
if nobody tips, we won't have this problem as the companies will have to pay their minimum wage then innit.
― ken c, Monday, 1 October 2007 16:10 (seventeen years ago)
We'd be like a union - temporary discomfort for the workers leading to a brighter future!
― Mark C, Monday, 1 October 2007 16:17 (seventeen years ago)
Pizza Express don't take tips, I know that for a fact.
― I know, right?, Monday, 1 October 2007 22:20 (seventeen years ago)
am i wrong to think that they can't do that if you tip in cash? For that rsason i always pay with a card then leave a cash tip. I could be totally wrong though.
― toby, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 03:53 (seventeen years ago)
I used to work in a place where they collected our tips to "pool them". Everyone I knew always left with significantly less than I recieved that night. Once two girls were short changed from about five hundred down to fifty! (Christmastime, and this place was always crazy busy, management were pricks)
― I know, right?, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 07:56 (seventeen years ago)
Tokyo Diner expressly says no tips and for that I love them and have been back on a point of principle (mostly that I love their amazing huge bowls of GRUB but this is a big soother in thinking oh should I go to eg Taro or something).
― Sarah, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 08:24 (seventeen years ago)
That is Japanese custom, though. You will also find this in effect at Kulu Kulu.
― suzy, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 10:36 (seventeen years ago)
Yeah unless this loophole is closed and we go further down the slope to American tipping customs...
― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 10:58 (seventeen years ago)