A Bar Is Getting Called Out For Adding Mandatory Tips & It Didn’t Stop At 18%

"How much should you tip?" is always a controversial question, one where many North Americans' answers differ. However, it looks like some bars and restaurants are already adding mandatory tips…and they don’t stop at 18%.

Reddit user TheUrbanBigfoot posted a photo of his dinner receipt after eating out in Hartford, CT. The check looks like any other, with all the items listed next to the prices, until you get to the end and see a "gratuity" section in bold letters.

"Mandatory tip. Food was crap as well," the Redditor posted in the r/mildlyinfuriating group. In the diner’s check, you can see a subtotal of $65.25 for food items like wings, roasted potatoes, vegetables and blue cheese dressing, among others.

The gratuity, or as the user is referring to it "mandatory tip," was $13.05, which is not 18 percent but 20 percent of the subtotal.

After taxes and the added gratuity fee, the user ended up paying a total of $82.23.

Other Redditors are jumping to the conversation highlighting the price of a specific food item TheUrbanBigfoot ordered at Matty D’s Restaurant & Bar: Wings.

"$16 for wings, and they still charged you for blue cheese," one user commented, to which the poster responded that it was happy hour and the restaurant was charging $1.25 per wing.

"Let’s also talk about $16 for ten wings, then .75 for the blue cheese. Insane," katch48 wrote.

Some other users were also chiming in the conversation to note how other countries don’t even have a tipping culture.

"Just got back from Paris. The most I paid for a meal was about 80 euros. There was no tip expected. We had two glasses of wine, an entrée(starter), and two main courses. The meal was fantastic. The normal price paid at other places for similar outings was about 30 to 60 euros," another user shared. "It is absolutely possible to pay workers a comfortable wage and not force them to rely on tips. In this case, the food was always better than what I eat in US restaurants and actually consistently less expensive."

One Redditor admitted to not understanding the tipping system in the United States, as a European citizen, saying that employers should pay their "staff enough and include everything in the product price."

Narcity reached out to Matty D’s Restaurant and Bar and did not receive a response at the time of publication. We will update the article when one is received.

This article's right-hand cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.