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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCheap Canadians? Vermont Restaurants Add Mandatory Tips
By Tim Newcomb | @tdnewcomb | August 29, 2012 | 7
If the wait staff at some Burlington, Vt., restaurants can tell youre an out-of-towner, expect to see an extra charge at the bottom of your bill. Its the mandatory gratuity, usually adding on an extra 18 percent or more.
As tourists flock to Vermont, they bring with them different tipping customs or worse, a stingy pocketbook, reports ABC News. To counteract $150 restaurant bills with only $1 left for tip, restaurants around town have started tacking on gratuity, customarily only added for large parties, to groups of any size.
And in some restaurants, its up to the server to determine if youre a generous local, a stingy foreigner or even worse a downright cheap Canadian. With Burlington within easy driving distance from Montreal, speaking French is a (near) sure tip-off to the server to be proactive if they want to see any tip come their way. Anne-Marie Humbert, originally from France but now living in the town next to Burlington, has been hit with mandatory gratuity charges at a local bistro and an Asian restaurant, just because she was speaking French, she told Vermonts Seven Days. Waiters assume shes from Quebec and pop the charge below the bills subtotal.
One Burlington restaurant owner told ABC that all foreigners have proven pretty cheap with tips when compared with Americans. But its likely just based on tradition. It isnt uncommon in Europe for gratuity to be part of the final bill, leading some visitors to not even plan on adding a tip at the end.
Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/08/29/cheap-canadians-vermont-restaurants-add-mandatory-tips/#ixzz24xfMHB8t
eShirl
(18,462 posts)Lucy Goosey
(2,940 posts)I bet a lot of Quebecois don't really know how little the Vermonters might be earning.
It seems like it should be illegal to arbitrarily charge people a mandatory gratuity based on the fact that they are suspected to be from Quebec.
cali
(114,904 posts)I can attest that Canadians are horrible tippers.
Spazito
(49,523 posts)Very interesting. I have been in restaurants where there have been American tourists who not only are cheap tippers but are also VERY rude to the servers as well as to other customers in the restaurant. The difference between your view and mine, it seems, is that I don't assume these particular tourists are the stereotypical Americans and I don't disparage Americans because of a few ignorant ones as I know better.
BTW, I am Canadian and tip very generously, always, even when I receive less than adequate service.
cali
(114,904 posts)and I don't approve of what those restaurants were doing, but in the 6 years I worked in a restaurant in Northern VT, the worst tippers were undoubtedly Canadians. I really have seen 5 bucks left on a check of 100 bucks. More than once. And we gave uniformly great service.
Spazito
(49,523 posts)"I can attest that Canadians are horrible tippers."
You did NOT say 'some Canadians'. Had you done so I would not have responded at all to your thread as one can find 'some _____________ are horrible tippers', fill in the blank as to their country of origin.
As to what those restaurants are doing, well, they most likely won't have to worry about the tips as they won't be getting the visitors, those "worst tippers", frequenting their business at all. I know were I to visit Vermont, I would make it a point to find out which ones plan to discriminate based on whether their customers are Canadians or not and avoid them as well as recommend others do the same.
snooper2
(30,151 posts)Sekhmets Daughter
(7,515 posts)I live in Palm Beach County, FL....they come here in droves during the winter months, help to jam pack the restaurants, expect outstanding service and then leave a pittance if they tip at all. My kids all worked in the service industry throughout high school and college....everyone complains about the Canadians. Even the high end restaurants here pay their tipped employees $2.15 an hour...too bad they can't be made to post big signs to that effect on their doors, in their lobbies and bar.
Lucy Goosey
(2,940 posts)In my province, the most populous in Canada, minimum wage is $10.25, or $8.90 for liquor servers. I'm just saying that even if we are bad tippers, it's not out of malice or even out of cheapness.
For me though, 15% is the minimum I tip unless I get unusually bad service, and I'm usually closer to 20%. Is 15% considered cheap?
dionysus
(26,467 posts)JBoy
(8,021 posts)Edit to add:
An additional 5% for breakfast - because the bill is smaller, but the server's work is the same.
SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)and sometimes we toss in extra if the waiter/waitress has been extra nice
JBoy
(8,021 posts)I've often seen print on a menu saying that for groups of (say, 8 or more) a fixed gratuity will be added to the bill.
But I'd be kind of pissed if a mandatory gratuity was added without any warning. I'd be speaking to a manager.
Sounds discriminatory to me.
dionysus
(26,467 posts)SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)a la
"We pay our wait staff shitty wages they cannot live on.. They need your tips (which are taxed) to be able to pay the rent & buy food".
laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)They should be required to put a sign like that next to their 'mandatory gratuity' signs. I would be most Canadians have no clue that servers are exempt from minimum wage rules. I think they would be shocked and disgusted and if they knew they would probably be better tippers. I know that I just found out about this a couple of years ago, and I've been on DU since '04, and yes, I was properly shocked and dismayed. And that's aside from the fact that your minimum wage sucks compared to ours. I live in a province with the lowest minimum wage and it is going up to $9.75 this month. What IS your minimum wage? I know it varies by state, right?
BTW, I always tip about 15-20% (on a sliding scale depending on the service - and I'm generous with that as I have worked as a busgirl/waitress) but next time I'm in the US I'll make sure to give extra.
4th law of robotics
(6,801 posts)Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)4th law of robotics
(6,801 posts)It works both ways.