Mandatory tipping?
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Mandatory tipping?
| Sun, 09-19-2004 - 1:07am |
http://www.wrgb.com/news/local/local_news.asp?selection=article_20754
I couldn't find a better site but the upshod is that this guy was arrested for *theft of services* because he refused to pay the 18% gratuity the restaurant required.
Do you think tipping should be mandatory and included in the bill?

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Quote from article: "his policy is to add an 18 percent gratuity for large groups"
Most restaurants add an 18% tip for a large party. I 'do' lunch with a party of 20+ women once a month at various places. It's so much simpler if a set price, with few choices, & a
Tipping being included in the bill is illegal. The judge in this particular case ruled as such. You can not make a tip mandatory. Besides, it's not there to protect the server, if the restaurant owner, wants to protect the server, they should pay them more - not try to mandate tipping.
Edited to provide the following:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/15/nyregion/15tipper.html
A Mandatory Gratuity Is Just a Tip, and Thus Not Mandatory, a Prosecutor Says
By JANE GOTTLIEB
Published: September 15, 2004
As it turns out, a tip is just a tip, even if you put "mandatory" in front of it.
Charges were dropped yesterday against a Long Island man who was arrested last week for failing to leave a required 18 percent gratuity at Soprano's Italian and American Grill in Lake George, N.Y.
The Warren County district attorney, Kathleen B. Hogan, said that she had determined that the man, Humberto A. Taveras, could not be forced to pay a gratuity.
Ms. Hogan said, "A tip or gratuity is discretionary, and that's what the courts have found."
But the dispute over a tip of a few dollars still cost Mr. Taveras, 41, of Roslyn Heights, several hundred dollars in legal fees.
"Basically, they stated that you can't enforce a gratuity; it's voluntary," said Mr. Taveras, who was on a train going home from Manhattan yesterday evening while his lawyer completed paperwork in Lake George, 60 miles north of Albany.
On Sept. 5, Mr. Taveras and his party, which included his wife, Marie, another couple, and the five children of both couples, were charged $77.43 for their meal, and an additional $13.73 for a tip.
Joe and Tina Soprano, the restaurant's owners, said the party of nine had not paid any part of the 18 percent gratuity required of all groups of six or more. Mr. Taveras said he had left a 10 percent tip.
The Sopranos summoned the police, and soon Mr. Taveras was arrested and charged with theft of services.
Mr. Taveras said he had seen no notice of the tipping policy on the menu, although Mr. Soprano said it was included on all menus. But Mr. Taveras said that the group had decided the food was not particularly good, and so did not pay the 18 percent.
Mr. Taveras was taken away in a police car, fingerprinted, subjected to national publicity. He said he eventually paid his lawyer a few hundred dollars to pursue the matter.
Mr. Taveras said he was not sorry. "I didn't like that my children had to hear, 'Your dad walked out on a bill,' and stuff like that," Mr. Taveras said.
Several telephone calls to the Sopranos' restaurant yesterday were not answered.
Mr. Taveras has dined at several restaurants since the arrest, and, he said, he has left some good tips.
Edited 9/19/2004 2:04 pm ET ET by imahockeymom
Edited 9/19/2004 8:20 pm ET ET by baileyhouse
Edited 9/19/2004 8:20 pm ET ET by baileyhouse
Tipping is one of those topics that really annoy me.
I agree.
Do you understand how food service works??? They get under minimum wage BECAUSE of tipping...I have seen food servers work their A$$es off on a large groups and get little or nothing for it. Some people think Waiters/Waitresses or their PERSONAL servents for the time they are in an establisment and that they owe this person NOTHING for the hard work they do. As I said before IF you get poor service at an establisment report it to management, otherwise and rightfully so you apperar cheap...As for as being the job they chose well I guess we should just do away with this part of the middle/lower middle class also..On a personal note, your response to this subject surprised me.
Are you saying they ALWAYS got the tip they earned??? I find it hard to believe that they NEVER got stiffed.
Are you saying they ALWAYS got the tip they earned??? I find it hard to believe that they NEVER got stiffed.
Of course not...but that goes with the job and that's what they said.
Your worker protection is not much better than a third world country where people have to sit and stitch Nike shoes for $1.80 an hour.
Ever heard of a minimum wage ??!!!
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