This is disgusting propaganda
Pay your workers
If your business model requires you to pay your workers less than a livable wage, you do not have a viable business model.
Restaurants are getting killed by greedflation not higher wages. When everything is expensive people start cutting back on discretionary expenses like eating out.
I’d wager this isn’t just Denver that restaurants are struggling in.
Before COVID restauranting was already a hard fucking business to stay afloat in the US.
It’s been a fucking bloodbath in restaurants all over ever since COVID. I know chefs who just can’t find a fucking job because half the places have shut down.
The restaurant has had to add a 23% service charge in lieu of gratuity to bridge the wage gap between front and back-of-house staff.
Is this a 23% charge on top of tipping the front-of-house staff? Isn’t a “service charge” disingenuous? Why not raise prices by 23% instead?
No, it is instead of tipping. That’s what they mean by “in lieu of”.
The question about prices is a good one, and the answer is that you can’t just raise prices when most other restaurants don’t include gratuity. It would just seem like your restaurant is much more expensive than everyone else.
It would just seem like your restaurant is much more expensive than everyone else.
Its a forced 23% gratuity, it IS more expensive than everyone else, except the restaurant isn’t being honest about it and hiding it in fine print only to be discovered when the bill comes.
That seems to be a great way to alienate customers from ever returning because they won’t know how much they’re being charged until the bill comes.
