UK hotels adding service charge to room rate

Re:UK hotels adding service charge to room rate by jandrewrogers on Tuesday September 14, 2021 @01:18AM (#28520536)

That is not relevant. The statutory minimum wage for jobs with tips where I live is $15 per hour (it is higher without tips). My examples occurred at restaurants where waitstaff expect to make upwards of $40 per hour. They aren't poor in any meaningful sense. The switch from tipping to a service charge anecdotally reduced their income by ~10%, they still made multiples of minimum wage.

If your employer arbitrarily reduced your income by 10% you'd complain too, and in this case the employer wasn't pocketing the difference because the difference was simply lost. It was basically lose/lose for the employer and employee. That's why it isn't popular.

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Re:UK hotels adding service charge to room rate by gumby on Tuesday September 14, 2021 @10:18AM (#28525209)

You’re saying the average tip is over 20%?

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Re:UK hotels adding service charge to room rate by jandrewrogers on Tuesday September 14, 2021 @04:34PM (#28530682)

While the average tip percentage may be 20%, the weighted average is >20% because the distribution is not uniform. The people that spend the most money also tend to tip the highest percentage. It is not unusual for financially comfortable regulars to consistently tip 25+%. For people that are cost sensitive and may tip say 15%, a fixed 20% surcharge is effectively a price increase.

This social dynamic of tipping 25+% is an expression of patronage for their favorite restaurants, no different than donating to the local museum. It isn't about the cost of the food per se. That said, this is probably more pronounced in regions that have a strong restaurant-centric culture like the Pacific Northwest.

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