The admin fee is allegedly being used in places as an alternative to service charge, and to stop staff getting 100% of tips.

by tylerthe-theatre

19 comments

  1. As someone who runs a hospitality business, this is ridiculous. The amount of work we now do to make sure our team get their fair tips is quite a lot, so to see people just circumventing it to make more money is jarring. And if that’s the money keeping their business open, it wasn’t viable in the first place

  2. Isn’t an admin fee just a service charge by another name, except that it’s no longer discretionary? According to the ‘Code of practice on fair and transparent distribution of tips’, a service charge is “An amount added to the customer’s bill before it is presented to the customer”.

  3. Hilarious that every restaurant named in the article was listed in that thread yesterday about “what restaurant do I send my worst enemy to”

  5. Disgusting. I will make sure it’s removed off any bill I get in a restaurant.

  6. Hospitality is such a predatory industry, almost by nature. Long hours, low pay, illegal practices, and because it’s unskilled there are a lot of students and immigrants who either don’t know the law or don’t have any power to demand anything. And high turnover means there will always be someone to replace you.

  7. Why are we tipping in the UK? This is an American thing. If you see service charges just tell them to remove it.

  8. Getting sick of this. I now only go to places that don’t try to add the predatory ‘service charge’ for doing the absolute bare minimum. I always ask for it to be taken off.

  9. Additional charges should be made entirely illegal. No exceptions.

  10. It’s telling that the restaurants pulling this shady move are the same ones people already warn others to avoid.

  11. >The admin fee is allegedly being used in places as an alternative to service charge, and to stop staff getting 100% of tips.

    This is what the article claims, but it’s not true. *Every* restaurant I’ve visited that has an admin charge or other questionable charge *also* has a service charge, and usually a high one, in the 15% region. The admin charge is an addition to the service charge, not a substitute. If the Time Out ‘journalist’ had actually read the menus of the restaurants they’re reporting on, this would have been obvious.

    So the article’s allegation that restaurants are trying to squeeze staff is simply untrue. It is the customers that are being penalised (as usual) by paying additional fees on top of the service charge. We are getting to a point where the final bill can be 20% higher than the stated menu cost.

  12. If you add charges to my bill, ill ask to remove them. If you refuse, enjoy watching me walk out without paying. Service and optional charges are a fucking blight, we are not responsible for shitty businesses underpaying their employees.

  13. Judges have a lot of latitude when applying the law. That can include looking at what Parliament intended when creating that law. I can’t see this standing up in court, as any judge will see right through it. Calling a charge something different doesn’t mean the law won’t apply.

  14. I’ve always tried to carry cash to tip wait staff that have done a good job, and I try to slip it to them quietly and say ‘that is for you’.

    On one occasion in Cyprus, I had a brilliant waitress all night at this restaurant and bar, she went on her break and we wanted to leave, I paid by card and said to the guy who I paid with (only interaction with him all night) ‘I’d like to tip my waitress, can you split this €20 with her please?’

    Dude straight up said no and looked legit pissed at me for asking, so I went to speak to the manager and ask what the deal was and he said ‘no you can tip whoever you want, I’ll go get her for you’ and I’m pretty sure that dude got in some shit for that but idc. He got 0 euros and she got 20.

  15. Do we have a list of these restaurants? So I can just skip them. I know that even under new law, service charge does not go to to the staff always, so why not just tell to remove it and give a tip?

  17. I don’t like paying service charge already but at least I know it goes to the staff (I hope). Fuck these restaurant which does these.

  18. Only solution to this has to be checking out all the charges before ordering and then walking out if they aren’t acceptable.

  19. I manage a hospitality site. I don’t take tips as I get a bonus. All tips go to the team! The staff are told they must share tips – only way to make it fair. But I turn a blind eye if a customer says … this is for you.
    I will never, ever, ever add a service charge to a bill. Tips are discretionary end of.
    We’re not all bad 🤨

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