Diner’s Dilemma

This may surprise you but I do not leave a tip in upscale restaurants. Most of the time. When they add a service charge of 10 per cent, as many of these restaurants do these days, I assume the money goes to the staff that has served me. After all, it is for service. It is the tip. The only difference is that it is added to the bill instead of leaving it to your discretion. It is intended to protect the employees from tight-fisted customers who might leave less, or sometimes nothing.

Now here is my dilemma. I have absolutely no way of knowing if the owner of the restaurant who has added a service charge on my bill is being honest. What if he pockets the whole amount or takes most of it and leaves very little for his employees? It is time the government makes rules on who gets the tip, if it is optional, or the service charge, if it is added to the bill.

Here is another racket many restaurants have got into in recent years. Some of you may have noticed that your bill, besides having an addition of 10 per cent as service charge, also leaves a space for ‘tip’ if you are paying by credit card. The restaurant is hoping you will add another 10 per cent without telling you that the tip has already been taken care of as service charge. If you are paying cash and leave a tip, the waiter will not draw your attention to the fact that it has already been added in the bill. So many unwary customers end up paying 20 per cent if you add together the tip and the service charge. This is daylight robbery.

The service charge protects the restaurant employees from stingy customers but it is optional and you are within your rights if you insist that the restaurant take it out from the tab if you are really dissatisfied by the service provided to you. Rude waiters, unacceptable delay in bringing the food, cheating by adding more items than you ordered, a fly swimming in your soup, for instance. Remember, the service charge is optional, not obligatory. It is not a tax imposed by the government.

There was a time when matters were simple. Any tip you left in a restaurant went to the waiter who served you. It was part of his income. In restaurants that paid better wages to the waiters, the tip was shared with other staff, the head waiter, the cooks, the dishwashers and others. You invariably left cash. The owner did not have a share. It was an arrangement that worked for everyone’s benefit.

With the arrival of service charge, an element of mystery has been added to the game. The customer has absolutely no idea where the money going. The wages in the restaurant industry are appallingly bad. If the employees are cheated out of the service charge, it is unacceptable. Certainly there is no law on how the service charge is to be shared. I know for a fact that in one prominent restaurant chain the owners take 15 per cent of the service charge as their share.

Here are a few suggestions. First, if a service charge will be added to the bill that fact should be indicated prominently on the menu so that the customer is aware of it before placing his order. Something as simple as this: “A service charge of 10 per cent will be added to your total bill before taxes. Tipping is not necessary.” In addition, there should be a law making it clear that it is illegal for the management to withhold any part of the service charge from its staff.

To tip or not to tip, it is a dil­emma that faces all of us ever so often. Traditionally, in this country we don’t tip taxi or autorickshaw drivers though some of us leave them any loose change. We tip in pricey restaurants but not in roadside dhabas even though the boys in these joints, often under-age, are more deserving. The delivery man who brings you the tandoori chicken order is often paid nothing or next to nothing. He depends on your tip for his income.

When you are planning a trip abroad, it is best to familiarise yourself with the tipping practices of the country you are visiting. We are so used to tipping 10 per cent in this country some of us feel that the same prevails everywhere. That is not so, in fact far from it. In Japan tipping can be an insult. Don’t be surprised if your tip is politely declined. The United States is at the other extreme. The minimum these days is around 20 per cent.