Tipping Ridiculous
A while back we got involved in the tipping debate, questioning the shady practices of those eateries who pay their staff below minimum wage on the premise that they can make up the shortfall through tips. Sneaky, huh? There’s never a guarantee that a customer will tip, however great the service, so setting up payment in this way is nothing short of miserly and underhand.
The issue is all over the news once more as reports of below minimum wages come in from waiting staff at some of the country’s most respected eateries. Who would have thought the Conran Group would be accused of offering a meagre £1.88 per hour basic pay at the Paternoster Chop House? Or that, according to former minister Ian McCartney, “the Government did a secret deal with restaurateurs so they could pay their staff less than the national minimum wage and make up the difference through customer service charges”?
The Independent are leading the way to change with their Fair Tips, Fair Pay campaign, working to expose restaurants who take advantage of this “loophole in minimum wage legislation” which means “the practice of “topping up”, also operated by some of the nation’s biggest chains, including Café Rouge, Strada and Caffè Uno, is legal”. Thankfully the campaign, backed by top chefs like Marco Pierre White, Antony Worrall Thompson and Giorgio Locatelli as well as businesses like Pizza Hut, The Good Food Guide, Harden’s Restaurant Guide and Time Out Eating and Drinking, is taking the debate right to the European Parliament as Labour ministers push for restaurant staff to be paid no less than the minimum wage, regardless of what tips they bring in.
What’s your tipping policy? Do you think waiting staff should get a little extra for doing their job well? We fully back the call for all staff to be paid minimum wage, but should that be the end of it? Do you tip even when service is bad or are you happy to put your foot down? We want to hear your views - get commenting!
Photo credit: Eat Money by waɪ.ti (CC License)
Technorati Tags: TrustedPlaces, food, tip, tipping, service charge, restaurant, cafe, europe, politics, minimum wage
July 30th, 2008 at 9:08 am
working as a waitress (and on occasion in a cocktail bar too), i’ve been on the both the receiving (not so frequent) and giving (always) end of tips. A certain well-known chain that shall remain anon, but lets just say the name is a nasty shade of le cafe red, paid below the min wage as tips were aggregated to make up the rest of the pay stipend.
Worse, as the above post shows, is that this is not uncommon! And more of a shocker, those tips you think youre crediting to one staff member are being shared with kitchen and (out of sight) managers. Both of whom at le cafe red were assured a min wage.
The cheek of it!
Thankfully this describes my student days and everyone needs crap jobs and working conditions as a rite of passage into the bigger and brighter world.
In America they have things right (for a change), and when you receive good service, you tip. In fact its the height of bad manners not to tip. And even worse if you are staff member that has offered such bad service that you are not receiving tips.
My tip; always tip. And remain tip top.