Is the Restaurant Industry ready for a non-tipping menu?
It seems like a simple solution to today's service problem.
After all we don't tip the nurse, receptionist or secretary.
It's included in the total bill of services rendered.
Some Private Clubs have already switched to a no-tipping policy.
It would go down better than a "service charge or gratuity" added to the bill.
That only indicates you are paying for execellent service whether received or not.
It seems if the Restaurant,Hotel or Club just raised the Menu price 15-20% "PROBLEM SOLVED."




 



 

You can not possible be in the food service industry. This will never work if for no other reason
(although there are many) you are still paying for excellent service whether received or not.
jack

you are still paying for excellent service whether received or not
 
That's true of the whole service industry.
If someone fixes your car, furnace, A/C or comes to mount your new business sign. There are a whole lot of service people out there that don't work on tips including a lot of the existing food industry. Tips are a way for people who don't tip to eat cheap, low wages allow the owners to keep the price of a meal low, add the tip and you're paying the real price. If the owners charged the real price (no tipping) then they would be responsible for good service not the person being served.

Is the Restaurant Industry ready for a non-tipping menu?
 
To answer your question. No
Some owners are ready but most have no idea that they are supposed to hire good servers. So if you have poor service you don't tip and have a cheap meal.

 
I think eliminating tips, and including them in the menu prices would make service even worse.  There would be almost no incentive to do a better job or go the extra mile in hopes of receiving a bigger tip. 
 
If you want to see the effect of this, go to South Beach (the southern 21 or 22 blocks of Miami Beach) and go out to eat.   Most restaurants (and bars) there include the tip in your bill, .... and the service is notoriously horrendous with bad attitude waiters/waitresses.   
 
Glenn
 
 

Glenn1234


 
I think eliminating tips, and including them in the menu prices would make service even worse.  There would be almost no incentive to do a better job or go the extra mile in hopes of receiving a bigger tip. 

If you want to see the effect of this, go to South Beach (the southern 21 or 22 blocks of Miami Beach) and go out to eat.   Most restaurants (and bars) there include the tip in your bill, .... and the service is notoriously horrendous with bad attitude waiters/waitresses. 

Glenn

 
Those shortcomings could be a sign of bad management.  I would think that a restaurant that was a no-tipping establishment could attract the cream of the crop when it comes to servers.  Instead of paying a small wage and depending on the patron to tip properly, pay the server a small wage, plus a percentage as a commission (15%-20%) on the amount of the check. Think of the servers as independent business people whose return business is dependent upon the service given.  Give each of them business cards, with their names on them, which they then could pass out to current and prospective patrons.  I know that when I get good service, I always ask for the same server on return trips.  This way, the harder the server works to get and retain patrons, the more they make, and the more successful the restaurant could be.  Besides, a server who has a great relationship with his/her patrons, the more likely it is that the patrons will be open to suggestions for appetizers and/or desserts.  Of course, this would require attentive management to weed out the under-performers, but isn't good management usually the key to success in most businesses?

 There isn't a restaurant in this country with our current economy that could stay in business while raising menu prices 15-20%. Not one. They would end up closing in a heartbeat. With prices for goods continuing to rise everyone is working there tails off to cut cost when ever possible, while maintaining quality. And good help in parts of this industry are paying to work.

Bring the jobs back from China so people can afford to indulge.
Yes 15 to 20% would kill a lot of places but not the good ones.
80% of the rest are going to die anyway.

I would rather see a service charge of 20%, 15% for the server 5% for the kitchen..............I have seen wait staff make a few hundred a night while the cooks on the front line get $10 an hr,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,pnwc

Many years ago I worked at a sports club and ran their kitchen in shifts. We had an 18% service charge and didn't take tips. The customers never minded and quality and service never suffered. We were paid well above minimum wage and had health insurance, too. It can be done. It's common in Europe and many places. Beats underpaying employees and making them work their butts off  for the sometimes vain hope of a good tip. While I tip well, having been on the receiving end of that, it wouldn't bother me in the least to see something like pnwchef's idea in all the restaurants I eat in. People WILL get used to it.

The answer to the question is YES. It's called Fast Casual. The expectation of "service" is different but there are many that offer great service off hourly wage employees. In my restaurant...that would take a $25 plate to 30 bucks. If commission pay stopped you wouldn't necessarily mean the talent is lost.

Federal minimum wage rules govern how they can be pooled among restaurant workers

By Ann Belser / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Jesse Seager was mortified when he found out that what he was doing was wrong.
 
An audit by the U.S. Department of Labor found the system his restaurants had put in place for sharing tips was not in compliance with federal law.
 
Mr. Seager said he was trying to do what was fair for all of the employees at his two restaurants, Point Brugge Cafe in Point Breeze and Park Bruges in Highland Park, where tips are collected by the restaurant and credited to the appropriate employees. Then the tips would be distributed in paychecks to the individual servers, with a percentage pulled out to be given to the bartenders, the hostesses and the dishwashers.
 
It was the dishwashers that got him in a jam.
 
The Department of Labor, it turns out, has rules about how restaurants can structure tip sharing and what those businesses can demand of their employees' tips.
 
Federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour for the first 40 hours in a week. However, the law allows employers to pay employees who also receive tips less than the standard minimum wage. In Pennsylvania, that would be $2.83 an hour.
 
Here's the caveat: If you pay an employee less than the federal minimum wage, then you can't take back the money they make in tips. That money is theirs.
 
There is more here:


Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/legal/federal-minimum-wage-rules-govern-how-they-can-be-pooled-among-restaurant-workers-664652/#ixzz2EB8XtWkY

Dr of BBQ


You can not possible be in the food service industry. This will never work if for no other reason
(although there are many) you are still paying for excellent service whether received or not.
jack

I have been in the food service industry since 1957 ( when a waiter had to buy a job from the "maitre de" and give him up to half of his tips) I have watched the quality of ("table  service" go downward since  the roits of1967 (I lost two of my best) The college kids and the female servers don't seem to have the professionalism of the old waiters that I started out with (that's why I only do Buffets  today)