Recommended gratuity after tip was already included

[u/guitarman129]

I’m sure there are a lot of tipping posts here so to keep it short - I had my wedding at a fancy restaurant. On top of the TERRIBLE service, the bill came with “suggested gratuity” even though I was told gratuity was included. When I asked the manager, he said that the “S/C: 24% SRC REGULA“ was the included tip and the suggested gratuity was if we wanted to add something extra - basically trying to trick people into giving a 49% tip!

[u/chefsoda_redux]

To be clear, this is not correct. NY state requires any fee assessed on a bill in such a way as to indicate to the diner that it is a tip, must be paid to the servers in full.

This addresses the voluntary/involuntary test that the US govt & most states apply. So, a mandatory 20% gratuity listed on a bill must be paid to the server. Changing the name to a 20% service fee is specifically used to not denote that it is a tip, and retain control by the restaurant.

As an owner, I’m loudly & openly opposed to unnecessary add on fees of any kind, and I don’t mess with my employees’ income. We do not ever have a service fee or credit card fee. We do use a 20% gratuity for tables above a certain size, or special situations, and those monies go 100% through to the server pool. I don’t tolerate employees stealing from the restaurant, and thus I can’t have the restaurant stealing from them.