I recently went somewhere and was forced to tip — as in, 0 USD/% was not an option — for literally doing nothing but ringing me up. The minimum amount was 25% of the bill.
Tips are becoming another mandatory hidden fee, which is a form of bait and switch. Wages shouldn't be part of that and it shouldn't happen either way.
> “Revenue Ruling 2012-18 reaffirms the factors which are used to determine whether payments constitute tips or service charges. Q&A 1 of Revenue Ruling 2012-18 provides that the absence of any of the following factors creates a doubt as to whether a payment is a tip and indicates that the payment may be a service charge:
> - The payment must be made free from compulsion
> - The customer must have the unrestricted right to determine the amount
> - The payment should not be the subject of negotiation or dictated by employer policy; and
> - Generally, the customer has the right to determine who receives the payment.
https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employe...
Doesn't literally every POS machine violate this? I've never seen the screen ask whom my tip should go to.
You could say "what about mandatory tipping on tables of 6 or more?" But in every case I've ever seen, it says so on the menu. That is, you're told what the deal is before you order. Whereas in this case, it sounds like the price was changed after you ordered, when you tried to pay.
Given that this is an IRS rule, it’s probably only illegal if the business reports the income as tip income to its employees, as opposed to a service fee charged by the business.
I honestly kind of felt bad, in that he probably wasn't making that much money, and the tip probably meant more to him than it meant to me. But demanding a tip and falsely telling me I'm getting more than I'm paying for is not the right way to fix that, and the pizza wasn't particularly cheap either...
If you aren't willing to stand up for yourself then you don't get to complain.
I normally tip 20% or so, but if there’s a mandatory surcharge, I just subtract it from the tip.
I suppose I could have, but I was buying food for my daughter, who was with me and was hungry.
It wasn't that much money overall, but the minimum tip amount was a pretty large percentage of the total cost. Five years ago it would have just been bundled into the cost of the item.