RIP Automatic Gratuity-New Law Affects Built-In Tips For Larger Groups

     With the new year in full swing, many restaurant servers are starting to get used to the fact that they are no longer able to include gratuity on parties of six or more. Affective as of January 1, 2014 the IRS has started treating these tips as a service charge and they are to be treated as regular, taxable income. Because of this new policy, many restaurant owners have chosen to do away with automatic gratuity and hoping that their staff will not see a difference it income at the end of the week. 

      

      As a waitress myself, and having many friends in the same field, this news did not go over very well. Automatic gratuity is there to make sure that when there are a lot of people and their bill is high, the waiter is taken care of and get the tip they deserve. On the bottom of many checks they now offer suggested gratuity ranging from 15-20 percent depending on the restaurant. In some cases it helps, and in other cases people just ignore it and tip whatever they "think" is right. In many other countries tipping is not a necessity nor do the servers work based mostly off of how much money in tips they make every day. Many foreigners are unaware of the tipping polices in America, and because of that, feel as though 5 or 7 percent is great. It becomes unfair to the waiter if they only receive 5 percent on a $300 check. 

      This policy has been in effect at my restaurant for a month now, and to be honest I feel as though I probably make about the same amount as I did when we were able to include some form of gratuity. Most guests seem to follow the suggested gratuity and leave somewhere between 17 and 20 percent. Of course, there are always those people who choose to leave a lot more, and those who choose to leave a lot less. For example, over the past weekend I received a $40 tip on a $50 check. On that same day I also received a $5 on a $50 check, and co-worker received $9 on $100 check. 

      Every restaurant server feels different about this situation. While some think it is a good solution, Leanne Massingham, a server at Fridays, feels as though this new law was definitely not made with the worker in mind. "Depending on the party and if they are bad tippers, it really effects me. You do your best to meat the guests satisfactions no matter who they are and when they don't even tip you 18 precent it not only reflects on the person mentally by thinking they did a bad job but also the money part. Dealing with big parties takes a lot of time and effort and if you don't get a good tip it's a waste of your time."

      As a server, you are always going to get people that tip great and people that tip poor, but for the most part as long as you are a excellent server you should not have any problems making all the of money you need.