I recently read a series of articles on tipping in restaurants -- including whether the service level actually affects total tip intake (their conclusion: almost never).
More interestingly, a guy who had a couple of restaurants out California way (where, apparently. servers get paid normal wage instead of the $2.13/hr nonsense) decided to change one of them to a "No tips accepted, period, but all meals have an 18% service charge added, instead" model; the other remained on a tipping model - both for the same stretch of time. The net result for you TL;DR types: At the no tipping place, service was better (because income was consistent), staff morale was higher, and they were more easily able to retain their better workers. All without raising listed menu prices.
It comes in several parts, and dates back to 2013. Worth a read.
Part 1 here: http://jayporter.com/dispatches/obse...rt-1-overview/
More interestingly, a guy who had a couple of restaurants out California way (where, apparently. servers get paid normal wage instead of the $2.13/hr nonsense) decided to change one of them to a "No tips accepted, period, but all meals have an 18% service charge added, instead" model; the other remained on a tipping model - both for the same stretch of time. The net result for you TL;DR types: At the no tipping place, service was better (because income was consistent), staff morale was higher, and they were more easily able to retain their better workers. All without raising listed menu prices.
It comes in several parts, and dates back to 2013. Worth a read.
Part 1 here: http://jayporter.com/dispatches/obse...rt-1-overview/
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