Please clarify does the service charge include the tip or not in restaurants? We have been tipping on top of the service charge. What say U?
Please clarify does the service charge include the tip or not in restaurants? We have been tipping on top of the service charge. What say U?
if i see a service charge that i was unaware of ..odds are i'm not tipping ..not that i'm cheap ..principled ?
What he said. A tip is for service so a service charge IS a tip. Right??....Damn..I dunno.Originally Posted by NEGRILJAIL
my understading is that the service charge is NOT a tip and may not end up in the hands of the wait staff
I tip separately in that I personally hand the tip to the bartender/waitress
That is what we do as well.
Yup!
Ditto - give the service person the dough in their hand (if that is deserved).
If your bill has a "service charge" then this is a shared tip for all the hourly employees, not a direct tip to your bartender or server. The Jamaican government enacted the service charge in the tourism industry so that more Jamaicans benefit when people visit Jamaica.
A service charge of 10% is added to the bill, then it is totaled from all receipts during that pay period, and then split between all hourly employees equally, from the bartender to the gardener to the housekeepers. That way, when a guest purchases something, more than just the server makes a bit of money.
For a simple example, lets say a server hands you a for us$100, with a $10 service charge added. The server will not get that $10 service charge directly. Lets suppose there are 10 employees total at the property. At the end of the pay period, that $10 charge will be split between all 10 employees equally. So while the server did not get the entire $10, they did receive $1 from it as did all the other employees.
The service charge is set at 10% so that it leaves room open for you to tip the server directly - and that tip is up to your discretion. You can leave an additional 5% that they will keep for themselves, or any additional amount that you choose.
It is often speculated that the employees never see the service charge. You may even hear that from the employees themselves. But this is simply not true. If a business has a service charge, then the business can be fined and even closed should they do not share this with all their hourly employees. A server may say they never see the money, but they do see their percentage of that charge which is of course much smaller depending on the number of employees. For the example above, the server may feel they didnt get anything from it, because they never saw 90% of the charge. But they did receive their percentage on their paycheck.
I hope this clears up the issue a bit.
Negril.com - For the vacation that never ends!
Thanks Rob!
Thanks Rob ...forthright information as per usual .. I still HATE service charges .. makes the customer atone for inadequate employer wages ... meaning that I am expected to pay part of every employees wages .. someone/somewhere has to admister to the allocation of these funds ..and that is not done for free ...it's just bad policy in my judgement ...
however i will always continue to reward good/great service with a tip .. just as eagerly as paying a bill to the penny for poor/inadequate service
In reality, everything you purchase at any business establishment has some aspect of that payment going towards paying wages for all the business' employees. The service charge is designed to allow all those that had a hand in providing the service you purchase to benefit from your purchase. While you have every right to reward for good service, in reality those direct tips rarely make it it to all those involved. For instance, in a restaurant you tip the server, but who tips the chef, the prep staff and the dishwasher - the server may not be sharing that tip although the server did not provide the dining experience you enjoyed all by themselves.
And what of the groundskeepers who makes the place look nice to create the atmosphere, the painters and maintenance crew who keeps the lights on and the water flowing or the people who keep the tablecloths and napkins clean and pressed - all these folks helped to provide the dining experience that you enjoyed. The service charge was implemented as a way to allow all those folks to benefit, and not just the person who had the interaction with their patrons.
Jamaican payroll accounting software include the calculations for the service charge, so once the data is entered for the purchase, the service charge is calculated and at the end of the pay period, everyone shares in the benefit with a very minimal amount of time required to administer the allocation. It is a rather painless procedure...
Negril.com - For the vacation that never ends!
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