XPost: alt.california, sac.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: rec.food.cooking   
   From: taylor@netcom.com   
      
   Geoff Davis doesn't want his employees to have to rely on tips.   
      
   The acclaimed chef who worked in restaurants and cocktail bars across   
   the Bay Area and wine country before opening the Oakland soul food   
   eatery Burdell, points out on customers' receipts that tipping culture   
   in the United States has a racist history — rooted in underpaid service   
   jobs relegated to formerly enslaved Black workers.   
      
   Instead of tips, his restaurant adds a 20% service fee to the bill. It   
   takes the guesswork and luck out of the equation, Davis said, and helps   
   to stabilize wages across dining rooms and kitchens — where servers   
   often receive tips but cooks and dishwashers do not — and helps offset   
   the cost of healthcare benefits offered to full-time employees.   
      
   The service charge is not an out-of-the-ordinary practice, and is common   
   among some upscale restaurants. And yet, Davis' restaurant has been the   
   target in recent days of online hate, a surge of vitriol prompted by a   
   now-deleted Reddit post featuring the service charge policy printed at   
   the bottom of Burdell receipts.   
      
   "Tipping in the US has an ugly past, allowing the continuation of   
   underpaid labor. We don't like that history. Included on your check is a   
   20% Service Charge which we use to pay hourly staff a consistent and   
   livable wage, not dependent on archaic tipping customs or chance. No   
   need to add anything else. Thank you! Burdell <3," it reads.   
      
   Burdell, which was named the best U.S. restaurant by Food & Wine   
   magazine in 2025, was immediately flooded with nasty reviews on   
   platforms such as Yelp, as well as angry, hateful and, at times,   
   threatening emails, phone calls and direct messages on social media.   
      
   "I'm just blown away by why we are getting held to a different   
   standard," Davis said. “We aren’t doing anything crazy. We didn’t invent   
   service charges."   
      
   Davis said when he put the service charge policy in place several years   
   ago, he carefully considered the language to nod to the history of   
   tipping without overloading customers with information. He "felt   
   strongly" about acknowledging the history. At the same time, he said, he   
   wanted to pay his staff competitive wages and offer healthcare coverage,   
   which he felt he could accomplish with a mandatory service charge.   
      
   Davis said pay for his employees is generally around double the local   
   minimum wage, which hit $17.34 in Oakland on Jan. 1. Full-time employees   
   can get about 75% of their healthcare covered, he said.   
      
   The Redditor whose comment prompted the outrage posted to r/EndTipping,   
   a subreddit dedicated to advocating “for a system where workers aren’t   
   reliant on tips." According to Davis, that's what the service-charge   
   model is all about.   
      
   The poster wrongly claimed the establishment failed to disclose the   
   automatic fee beforehand. The policy is featured prominently on   
   Burdell's menu, and the receipts do not include a line for additional   
   tips.   
      
   Yet the onslaught has continued for weeks, even after Davis addressed   
   the situation in a Feb. 4 post on Instagram. In his post, he said that   
   for years he had worked in restaurants earning below the minimum wage —   
   and watching as so-called front-of-house workers earned significantly   
   more than those working in the kitchen.   
      
   In many restaurants, back-of-house workers with lower take-home pay are   
   more likely to be Latino, Black or from other marginalized groups, while   
   server positions are often held by white people. A 2015 study by   
   Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, a nonprofit labor advocacy   
   group, found waiters at high-end restaurants could earn salaries five   
   times greater than those of employees washing dishes, clearing tables   
   and prepping food in the same establishment.   
      
   "We've gotten threats of violence, threats of burning down the   
   restaurant and just horrible, hateful emails," Davis told The Times.   
   "It's exhausting and scary, not just for me but for our staff."   
      
   Many Americans are unaware that tipping is a legacy of slavery. Although   
   the practice originated in feudal Europe and was brought to the United   
   States by travelers, it blossomed after the Civil War as U.S. employers   
   sought to avoid paying formerly enslaved Black workers. The Pullman Co.,   
   which manufactured railroad cars, notoriously hired newly freed Black   
   men as porters, drove down their wages and forced them to rely heavily   
   on tips from white riders. The practice of tipping entrenched a   
   racialized class structure in service jobs throughout the hospitality   
   sector.   
      
   Although California has for several decades required restaurants to pay   
   the state’s minimum wage regardless of how much workers receive in tips,   
   federal law continues to allow a subminimum wage for tipped workers.   
      
   The federal minimum wage is $7.25, stuck there since 2009; the tipped   
   minimum wage is far lower, at $2.13. Employers of these tipped workers   
   can use customers to subsidize $5.12 of the business' hourly wage   
   obligation. Although many states have a minimum wage far above the   
   federal $7.25 per hour, many still have an exceptionally low minimum   
   wage for workers who get tips.   
      
   The discussion around tips remains contentious, and California lawmakers   
   have struggled with how to handle the imperfect solution of service   
   fees. Restaurants such as Michelin-starred Taiwanese eatery Kato, in   
   downtown L.A., and Coucou, in West Hollywood, charge fees — 18% and 20%,   
   respectively — high enough that diners often don't feel a need to add a   
   tip. Restaurants that have a smaller 3% charge to cover healthcare might   
   leave customers confused on how to proceed.   
      
   Legally, service fees are treated differently from tips: The former is   
   the property of the restaurateur to distribute as they please, while   
   tips are legally the property of the individual server.   
      
   Former servers at Jon & Vinny’s, a popular Italian American restaurant   
   with several Southern California locations, filed a class-action lawsuit   
   in 2023 alleging that their company denied servers tips and was eating   
   into their take-home pay because of diner confusion over an 18% service   
   fee. The suit prompted the restaurant to update language on its bill to   
   explain that the service fee was not the same as a gratuity.   
      
   In 2024, California considered doing away with service charges as part   
   of legislation banning “hidden” or “junk” fees but walked back the   
   proposal at the eleventh hour.   
      
   At the time, Kato's owner, Ryan Bailey, told The Times that although   
   some operators were “misusing the service charge," most were   
   distributing it fairly to provide benefits and compensate employees in a   
   way "so immensely appropriate and responsible ... that if it was to go   
   away, it would be really crippling to everybody."   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)