By skyforbes I am an employee at the Alinea group in Chicago and I want to be come public about something that guests rarely understand when dining with us.
There is a 20% service charge added to every check. Guests overwhelmingly assume this is a gratuity or that it goes directly to the service staff. It does not.
None of that 20% is distributed to front-of-house employees. It does not go to the tip pool, no percentage.
Servers are paid an hourly wage of around $20/hour, which is described to guests as a “living wage.” As well as the fact that schedules are tightly managed to prevent a single hour of overtime. The truth is you can’t survive on $20 in this city. They pay us to live in poverty.
Guests are explicitly told that the service charge covers our “high wages,” so most understandably do not leave gratuity.
On a busy Saturday, I can personally do up to $8,000+ in sales, keep in mind there’s up to 6 servers in 6 different sections as well. The 20% service charge on my sales alone revenue is $1,600.
After a full shift, my take-home pay after taxes is often under $150.
We will rent out a portion of the restaurant for a private event, the group will pay $10,000-20,000 (including 20% service charge) for a 3 hour coursed out cocktail pairing menu. The team of servers and bartenders are paid avg $20/hr for this event ($60 total each). The $4,000 service charge is not seen by anyone working it. They don’t even get an option to leave real gratuity.
I am proud of the hospitality I provide. I care deeply about service. But this model shifts guest goodwill into corporate revenue while leaving service workers financially strained and unable to share honestly with guests.
Guests deserve to know where their money is going. Workers deserve to be paid in proportion to the value they generate.