Customers Have a Bottom Line, Too

If the customer is always right, then a lot of restaurant owners are dead wrong when it comes to their tipping policies.

Sunday, I told you about Yours Truly, a restaurant chain in the Cleveland area that now deducts a percentage of the processing fee from tips left on charge cards.

Many restaurant owners argued that this practice is only fair, which means more of them are doing this than I thought.

Most customers, and I've heard from hundreds of them so far, don't agree. They think it's unfair to deduct a fee from the tips of servers who depend on gratuities to make minimum wage and it's unethical to hide this practice from the public.

A few restaurant owners have been a tad hostile. I'm fine with being called a socialist and an idiot, but I wince when an employer views employees as discardable and clueless. As one owner put it: "Look, these are minimum-wage jobs, and they were never meant to support a family. These people should know better."

Yes, well, wouldn't it be nice if restaurants were staffed only by trust-fund kids looking for adventure and stay-at-home wives in need of pin money? Unfortunately, life hasn't quite worked out that way for an awful lot of Americans. All those working-class kids trying to afford college come to mind, not to mention the majority of servers, who happen to be unmarried women.

One waitress, a recent college graduate working at a chain restaurant near Cleveland, told me that she knows she's one of "the lucky ones."

"I'm here for the short term," she said. "But most of the women working here are in it for the long haul, and most of them are single mothers. A lot of them work nights because this is their second job."

She didn't know whether the processing fee was deducted from her charge card tips, and when she found out, she looked stunned.

"OK, I didn't know this," she said, taking a deep breath. Then she explained that not only does the restaurant deduct the charge card fee from her tips but also she must contribute 3 percent of the net sale of every table she serves regardless of how much she is tipped.

"Half of that 3 percent goes to the bussers and the hostesses," she said.

"The other half goes to the house."

My turn to be stunned.

"The house? You mean management keeps half the money deducted from your tips?"

She nodded then added, "Regardless of how much I'm tipped."

This may be the exception. We'll find out.

Apparently, not so exceptional, though, is Yours Truly's recent decision to deduct charge card fees from servers' tips. Servers at restaurants across the country tell me this is now standard practice where they work, too.

Customers were appalled. Over and over, they insisted that they tip for good service, and it was heartening how many of them expressed a genuine affection for restaurant servers, particularly those who regularly wait on them. A few readers said that lately they even were adding a bit more than 20 percent because they know the rising gas prices are hurting hourly wage earners the most.

As restaurant customers, it's time for you to draw your own bottom line. If you're willing, ask about the policy on tips. If you find out management is skimming, raise your objection with the boss.

Now, I understand not everyone wants mealtime to be an interrogation. At the very least, servers really appreciate tips left in cash regardless of how you pay the bill.

Oh, one more thing.

One restaurant chain, in response to my column, posted a notice on its bulletin boards instructing employees to assure any customer who asks that they agree with the policy of deducting from tips left on charge cards.

In other words, employees have been ordered to lie. Apparently, this management thinks its wait staff is not only clueless but also spineless.

And how do I know about this stunt?

Several employees told me within hours of its posting.

Who looks clueless now?

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and the author of two books from Random House: "Life Happens" and "… and His Lovely Wife." To find out more about Connie Schultz (cschultz@plaind.com) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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