An Atlanta bartender’s TikTok showing six straight receipts without a tip from her Saturday night shift sparked yet another tipping debate.
Captioned “Bartending on a Saturday night in Midtown Atlanta,” the 15-second video got over 217,700 views and 5,952 likes since being posted over the weekend.
In the video, @dannibeautiyfulbones shows six receipts, ranging from $14 to $120. According to the receipts, each customer left no additional gratuity.
The video caused a massive rift in the comments section as commenters debated whether or not bartenders deserved an “additional gratuity.”
Many of the 333 comments noted that there is an 18% mandatory service charge already on the receipts.
“I’m a bartender too, but girl it says additional gratuity,” @amandaeidlin1 said.
“Gratuity in ATL is like 18-20%. The tip is included in the total,” @ms.davenport commented.
Others, however, pointed out that the bartender doesn’t walk away with the full 18% service charge since it’s spread around to all service workers.
“Even if tip is included if I have a good server I always tip more on op of that. They get paid like $5-$6 an hour. What is wrong with y’all?,” @diamondmsaint said.
“Gratuity goes to the entire house! Servers and bartenders most likely see $2 of that. Just educate yourself,” @y.xiovu remarked.
Although it may sound the same, a “service charge” is a percentage added on by the venue that gets equally distributed to every employee. This means that an 18% service charge is a mandatory gratuity included in your receipt that goes to service workers like the cooks, janitors, wait staff, etc.
According to FindLaw.com, “While the ‘tip’ versus ‘service charge’ distinction may not seem too important to a customer, it may make a big difference to your server. That’s because a ‘tip’ belongs to the server, according to the IRS, while a ‘service charge’ may not.”
The Daily Dot reached out to @beautiyfulbones via TikTok direct message.
Editor’s note: Due to a technical error, our original message to this TikToker may not have been delivered.
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