Should you tip on a credit card?

Should you tip on a credit card?

Some wonder why we tip in restaurants at all, when we display no such largesse towards other notoriously poorly paid service sector workers like shop assistants or bar staff. But assuming you are not among them, the question of how to tip a waiter arises because many restaurants now add an "optional service charge" to the bill, or programme credit card terminals to ask if you "wish to add a gratuity" - and there is mounting evidence that far from finding their way back to staff as a bonus, tips paid on plastic are used to top up salaries, often to the minimum wage.

Waiters from several high-street chains have accused employers of doing this, and Café Rouge and Strada have confirmed it is now routine: "Cash tips left for waiting staff are their own, on top of their wages," Tragus, the chains' owner, says. "As with a number of other operators in the industry, credit card tips go through the till and the payroll system and may partially contribute to the minimum wage."

Remarkably, they are operating within the law: a loophole in the National Minimum Wage Act allows restaurants to count a "tips" component as part of the minimum pay rate, while handily exempting them from any obligation to pay, for example, National Insurance on it.

The only decent thing for a restaurant to do is to allow staff to distribute all tips, whether left in cash or on cards, as democratically as they see fit (including, hopefully, to sous-chefs and dishwashers). Dave.....continued below

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Turnbull of Unite the Union, which is campaigning on the issue, recommends you "ask the manager exactly where the money will go if you tip, or pay a service charge, by credit card". And if you are not completely satisfied with the answer, "leave it in cash". There's no guarantee it'll end up in your waiter's pocket, but at least there's a chance.

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