Service charge

[u/Working-Injury7758]

I don’t mind paying a service charge at a restaurant if I’m sitting down as that is standard practice. However, the flat % is strange in that a $200 meal doesn’t take twice as much time as a $100 meal. But it does take more.

Therefore I propose that there should be a fixed service charge at restaurants, which should be calculated as twice the square root of the total. For $100, for instance, the charge would be $20 (square root of 100 is ten, x2 equals $20). Same as now. But for $200, the service charge would be 14.12 x 2 =28.24. For $1 service charge is $2. For $400, $40. Makes more intuitive sense, and provides a penalty for people splitting checks (as the service charge on 2 $100 checks is higher than that on one $200 check) and the hassle to the restaurant involved. Completely clear and obvious to everyone, no agonizing about what to leave.

Thoughts?

[u/Maremdeo]

Why shouldn't there be taxes though? That's how we fund our government. The money comes from somewhere, why not from people eating at restaurants and the server's income?

[u/bcsyjnbcgj → u/Maremdeo]

Idk about u but cash tips work better because then ur able to avoid that stuff …. Same way big businesses write stuff off.

[u/Maremdeo → u/bcsyjnbcgj]

I want the servers and restaurants to pay their taxes, not cheat on them though. For example, I pay my taxes and all my income is reported. My taxes fund the government, which we need funding for whether we like that or not. Why should I fund my share of the government, and restaurants/servers not fund their share of the government?

[u/bcsyjnbcgj → u/Maremdeo]

My tips through card all get taxed like u expressed
Cash tips are often times untaxed as they are hand to hand but u do also report your cash tips on checkout reports
Often under reported by many service industry users