This is an opinion piece. I understand may get me a lot of flack but this is something which has been bothering me for a while…

A service charge is exactly what it says on the tin. It is a charge added at the end of your meal for the service you have been provided. This is almost always worked out as a percentage of your meal and is usually put on as an optional standard. This is very similar to a tip but is not a spontaneous act of kindness that is guaranteed to go to the person serving you. Instead, it is paid through the bill and could go anywhere.

I am glad we do not have a big tipping culture in the UK. I completely understand why it can be a good thing to do if the service has gone beyond the line of duty but people should not be tipped for simply doing their job.

Tipping is not something I flat out refuse to do but I have often felt that a tip should be an exception rather than the rule. It should be on the terms of the customer what they are willing (or can afford) to pay.

I am also aware that tipping is popular in other countries, most notably the US, which I completely understand. In the US minimum wage laws are sporadic, insufficient, and (in some examples) non-existent. Healthcare is not universal and tipping fits quite nicely to the American idea of the harder you work the more you get. This makes something like tipping a great way for someone to turn their waitressing job into a sustainable wage that can pay for a quality of life we take for granted in the UK.

But things are different in jolly old England. We have a generous minimum wage, a better benefit system, and universal healthcare. We also don’t subscribe to the starry eyed American idea of “being the best you can be” but more to the idea of working to live well.

Which leads me to the service charge. This is essentially the worst of all worlds. It has this horrible habit of being added onto your bill at the end without warning (or usually written in tiny writing at the bottom of the menu). It is something which is not included in the price and you have to add on top when calculating what the bill (if you notice it).

Of course, people will say that it’s optional and you can have it taken off at any time but naturally this puts an unfair pressure on the customer, who has come to the restaurant to relax. Now they have to justify why it should be taken off, when it shouldn’t be on there at all…and the restaurant knows this too. Restaurant owners know that a lot of people will just pay it to avoid embarrassment, which is essentially exploiting people’s good nature, especially in the UK where we will do almost anything to avoid an awkward situation. 

That person you have spent an hour chatting and building up a relationship with, you now feel like you have suddenly upset, when the reality is that the customer should never be involved in the pay discussions between the staff and the management in the first place.

Which leads me to my next point. What is an acceptable tip? I have always thought that 8% is a fair price, especially for a larger group. Yet I am seeing companies crudely add 12.5% to their bills. This is rather presumptuous of them. 

I am happy to pay more for my meal for the staff earn a fair living but just add it to the price of the food. Tipping culture puts unfair pressure on customers, encourages employers to pay less, makes things more confusing, and breaks trust between restaurants and customers.

If you see me in a restaurant, do not expect a service charge. It’s nothing personal, it’s just ambush tipping

If you want to write a piece for the Cambridge Foodies blog then get in touch with me on Simon@cambridgefoodies.me.uk

Update:

We polled the Cambridge Foodies Facebook group to see what the community’s opinions were. After two days, it became clear that the service charge was a very unpopular idea with people preferring not to tip at all rather than pay a service charge.

Reading through the comments, peoples main concern was not the tipping itself but the fact the charge was added and had to be requested to take off. According to people in the group this made customers feel uncomfortable and awkward. There were also concerns over the service charge often being very high, between 10-15%, with individuals wanting the freedom to tip what they feel was appropriate at the time. Some expressed concern over the money being paid through the restaurant and either being taken or shared across the restaurant and taxed.

It looks like my concerns aren’t alone 🤷‍♂️