I am planning a trip to Seattle for the end of September and noticed a few restaurants have instituted a “service charge” in response to the new minimum wage laws (e.g Walrus & Carpenter. How does this work in practice?
Does one simply not tip at an establishment that has this service charge (18.5% - 20%) or is there discretion to increase/decrease if the service was exemplary/unacceptable?
Do all restaurants do this, or is it up to the proprietor and some establishments still choose to go the normal tipping route? Is it obvious if it is one or the other? (e.g. indicated on receipt)
Does this apply to all of Washington State or is it just Seattle?
However, I can say that many restaurants are not doing this (at least, yet… the $15 minimum wage is phasing in slowly, and won’t be in full effect until 2017 at the earliest). Seattle’s $15 minimum wage was passed by the Seattle City Council, so it’s a city thing and not a state thing. However, other cities have passed similar minimums (most notably, SeaTac). However, as the Kiro article linked above mentioned, I don’t think that this change is exclusively about minimum wage issues… I wouldn’t be surprised to see other restaurants follow along, even in jurisdictions without $15 minimum wages. Anyway, hope this helps!
As noted above, there are only a handful of restaurants that have made this change. Those that have done so are charging the service charge in place of tipping and are generally making it quite clear on the menu or check that no tip is expected. I did just alread, however, about one restaraunt that had removed the tip line from credit card receipts that has added it back after pressure from customers that still wanted to tip. Their language said something like “A service charge of 20% is included be if you still feel you MUST leave a tip, do it here”.
I don’t think you’ll have any trouble working out those that charge the service fee where no tip is expected. The restaurants are generally going out of their way to make sure everyone understands in an effort to avoid seeming expensive relative to the competition.
What a mess. Restaurants should just pay their employees what they think they’re worth, charge appropriately for the food, and dispense with service charges and tips entirely.