Restaurants that Charge Gratuity for Takeout

How about this radical idea: Make it the law for waiters to make minimum wage. I have never understood why these employees aren't paid what is supposed to be the lowest legal wage for an employer to pay. Am I wrong?
Also, I had always thought that gratuity was supposed to be a non required payment. That is how it is defined on wiki (reliable as wiki is). How is a charge they make you pay, non required?
Put on a service charge for the containers, or figure it in the price fine.

BTW, I have tipped from 1 penny, to 50% of a meal based on service.
 
Theu, they aren't paid the "minimum" because the state views tips as what amounts to commission. I personally think it is a very good thing. It allows restaurants to keep costs down, and will allow a good waiter (even in a bad restaurant) to walk out of a weekend with hundreds of dollars for a single night's labor. That a bad waiter financially struggles should be a sign that they need to get a straight wage job, and stop wasting everyone else's time. It is the ultimate meritocracy, and the industry, the waitstaff (assuming they are worth their salt) and consumer are all better for it.

As for everything else you said, I completely agree.
 
I should point out the folowing:

When you go to a restaurant, and the waiter delivers your food, he has done NO work hardly at all. Just like the To Go order, the Kitchen and Bar staff prepared the meal. The waiter just picks the meal up off the counter, and brings it to you. On his way by, he picks up the drinks the bartender has prepared. He brings the stuff to your table, and maybe gets you some ketchup, then he says, "Have a nice day". For this, you will tip from 10% - 30% without regret.

Well, this is the same amount of work the To Go order person does. They actually do more. First, they have to take a phone order from a person who may or may not have a menu, or know what they want 100%. The To Go stuff is usually very difficult to close and pack correctly so that you don't have to smell ranch dressing on your car seat.. Then they have to hunt down plastic forks and spoons, Ketchup packets, and whatever else you ask for, all that while getting it out to you while it is still hot.

Many times it is the Bartender's responsibility. The bartender will get you a drink, get your To Go order out, and get you the extra stuff you want to take with you as well, toothpicks, mints, what have you.

There is no tip share for this job. Tip share is between Waiters, Bartenders, and Hosts, but only if you tip the server will the Host, for example, will recieve a small portion of the tip you gave to the waiter.

Corporations such as Steak and Ale, Bennigan's, Friday's, etc.. have been taking advantage of the "minimum wage waitstaff" for a very long time. The law states that the wage plus tips have to add up to the actual minimum wage. If not, the restaurant is liable for the difference. This hardly ever happens, unless several busloads of little old ladies rush the joint. Usually , the customers make up for the difference, and then some, so, everyone is fine.

Don't blame the waiter. Tip him. He is working to make your day easier, while also trying to get through school. If you don't want to pay the Mandatory tips, then, go to a different restaurant.

cool.gif
 
vote with your feet if it bugs you

PSA - my philosphy on tipping - I give shitloads to charity but it's still not enough. I should give more. Anyone who helps me out by cooking me food or whatever gets a big tip. I tip a lot because typical people who get tips

a) need them
b) are doing something to help me
c) are working.

I dont tip at all for bad service.
 
After a few instances where the take out guy at On the Border kept my change, I asked a manager if I'm supposed to be tipping these guys or something. He said it's about 50/50 of people who do or don't tip, & the one's that tip usually give them 10%. Since I'm a regular & I don't want anyone spitting in my food, I now tip 10%.
 
I was a waiter one summer. Bad place. Not a terrible job, but I never did it again. I made half the minimum, for the reasons already stated.

Since then, I've always been a good tipper. But I do not tip for to-go meals. I'm already paying more than I should for a meal for which I am not getting the wait service.

I suppose I'd pay for the boxes, not a big deal. But if they want me to tip for service I did not receive, I would protest, and then I would not go back. Assembling the pieces of a to-go meal is not the same as being a waiter.

Generally, I should get to decide the tip.
 
You can get most restaurants to deliver here in NYC, and I haven't had to pay a forced gratuity yet. Of course, I tip the guy on the bike.
 
mrjefft's post should be read by all.

however, i do not necessarily agree with the mandatory takeout charge. however, i do feel that people should tip on to go's.

barton, where did you work?
 
I think charging for the boxes is bad business, though I guess you get what you pay for, I don't know.


Ex-waiter here. I tip 10%, maybe.
 
I guess this breaks down to what kind of service you think that the to go people provide. All I can say is if you've worked at a restaurant with that service (or done it yourself) you know that there is a fair amount of effort involved.

And don't even get me started on delivery guys. Stiffing them is horrible. they work for server wages generally, have to pay to put gas in their car and are expending generally as much labor as waiters. And they do it in rain, sleet, intense heat etc.

By the way, any delivery guy who is even half way decent at his job knows what you tip at an address. A consistent 5 spot should get you your food early. A dollor or less and you better hope- 1) they don't know this going in and
2) they don't spit in your food.

I never did the second but I damn sure structured my orders so that a good tipper got their food first and a bad tipper was at the end of the line. You can tell a bunch of places after about a month or so on the job, and people fight over getting the orders to the big tippers.
 
You know, I agree with delivery people to a point. The baseline for a waiter at a resaurant is 15% (then rounded up to the nearest dollar on the tip, tipping change is weak), but that involves continued service over the course of the evening. As a one shot deal, even considering how much is involved in that one shot, a delivery person has to have a lower baseline. I typically start at 10% assuming timely service, and lower if they are late AND a douche about it (It is all about how you handle it). If they are quick and try to make the most out of the encounter (freebies already on hand, their own pen, etc.) I'll go up to as much as 20%. It would have to be something well out of the ordinary to go beyond that.

To-go people, to me, are only slightly different in kind than a counter person at any fast food restaurant. Of all of the people involved in the transaction on either side of the register they did the absolute least amount of work, and as such deserve the least compensation. The exception there is if it is clearly a waiter (with tables) or a bartender, in which case they get 15% rounded up to the nearest dollar. I'll tip togo at places I frequent for the benefits that buys, but if I'm floating through then I don't see the point.
 
that is true, mia.

some places do not leave much to be done for the TG person. MANY make you do a ton of ****.
 
Everyone who works in food service should wear a button - "My hourly wage is $X", so i can decide if they need to be tipped or not.
 
When I get my to-go orders at OTB the to-go guy usually will repeat back my order while pointing in the sack to let me know he actually checked to be sure I got what I ordered. There's nothing worse than getting all the way home & finding out they gave you the wrong order. And maybe it's because I'm a regular & do tip, but I hardly ever have to ask for more than one bag of chips (I get 2 or 3) & plenty of hot sauce. To me that's worth 10%.
 
I worked years ago at a steak restaurant, and if you ordered a to go order, a waiter took the call, made the ticket, boxed the food, took the money, made the change. This was a major pain in the *** if you were busy, which is when people would call for take out orders. There wasn't a separate take out person, cook, drive through window, or anything like that. It was less efficient and more time consuming for the waiters to get a take out order.
Not only that, but the government expects you to declare 10% of your waiter's total food sales as tip income. The take-out counted as food income. If you didn't get tipped, which was not unusual, you had to pay taxes on money you did not receive.
We hated take out orders.
Other places may be set-up to do takeouts, like Taco Freaking Bell, but otherwise, tip the waiter just like you would if you went in to eat, el cheapos.
 
Not only that, but the government expects you to declare 10% of your waiter's total food sales as tip income. The take-out counted as food income. If you didn't get tipped, which was not unusual, you had to pay taxes on money you did not receive.
_________________________________________

Thats is an issue with the restaurant. they should be separating those charges from the waiters ticket. regardless, you are getting 5-10% tax free money.
 
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but th3 restaurants do not do it that way. that waiter is not going to get them to change. non tippers justify this as the restaurant's fault. yet, they do not go start some grassroots movement to fix it. their ******** remedy is to not help the ******* waiter. who gives a **** about subsidizing shady restaurant practice. that TG guy has ******* bills/tuition and good drugs to buy.
 
I know this has kind of been touched on but here goes again...

In a lot of restaurants, the to go person is either:

1. A waiter who is covering tables AND getting the to go stuff out.
2. A waiter who is only doing the to go stuff.
3. A bartender who is pouring drinks for those at the bar AND the waiters AND doing the to go stuff.

Is it fair that those folks should have to do all of that for a ****** (or no) tip?

I really wish more people would have waited tables growing up. Even if only for a few days. It's ******* hard work. And it's not just about making sure your ice tea is always topped off or that your burger has the right condiment on it. You have to deal with some real ******** who will go out of their way to be dickheads.

Waiting tables is a great way to learn how to read people and deal with ********. Some of y'all might benefit from working your *** off for $2.15 an hour.
 
People are throwing around words like mad or pissed-off, so why do you keep going back to these places?
 
I work as a .Net developer. That's the main function of my job. I get compensated for developing .Net applications. External clients are the customer of my business and they receive the fruits of my labor for a cost. But I get paid to do one thing, and that is to program.

If my company decided that to get more customers and make more money, they will open an accounting practice, and then require me to do people's taxes as well as program, but then not pay me any more, should I expect the customer to subsidize my pay because I am doing more work for the company? It's the company's decision to make my work load heavier, not the customer's. Why should the customer be forced to pay more? They shouldn't. It would be my responsibility as an employee to demand more pay or find another job.

If the company's bottom line goes up, then they can raise prices to make up the difference. Rather than forcing the customer to pay more for something that makes the company even more money, the company should pay the employees more for that extra work.

Employees get loaded down with extra work all the time and we don't see it. A stock person at a retail store might get stuck with inventory duties above and beyond their normal job description. The person buying a TV doesn't then tip them for doing that extra work. Why would it be any different for a restaurant?

I tip, and tip generously, when I go out to eat. But I expect the restaurant to fairly compensate their employees for the work that they do. If they don't, I can't help that, and it's not my responsibility to.
 
Netslave, you should have to work as a waiter for a week, it might surprise you to know that it isn't the same job you are doing, myopia breath.
And Sonic is set up to be an efficient fast food and to-go place, but most regular restaurants are not. Quit comparing apples to oranges.
 
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