Many guests like to tip after eating out or visiting a café – and want to appreciate the performance of the employee who served them.
Giving a tip if you were satisfied with the service as a guest in the restaurant – according to etiquette experts, this is part of good manners. Employees are happy about this, and with low wages, many employees are dependent on tips. But are service staff allowed to keep the money directly?
Are service staff allowed to keep the tip directly?
From a legal point of view, the situation is basically as follows: The tip is due to the employee who received it, says Prof. Michael Fuhlrott, a specialist lawyer for labor law in Hamburg and a member of the Association of German Labor Lawyers, according to a report by the German Press Agency (dpa). At least, unless otherwise stipulated in the employment contract. The guest gives the tip voluntarily and thus appreciates the performance of the service staff serving him.
According to etiquette experts, giving a tip in a café or restaurant is part of good manners. (Symbolic image) © Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa
Tipping does not have to go to the owner
If the guest does not expressly request a different distribution of the tip, the respective service staff may keep the money, the dpa report continues. Owners of a catering establishment, for example, cannot then demand that employees give the tip to them. According to the labor lawyer, such regulations are regularly ineffective, as the news agency describes. Even those who have signed a clause to this effect do not have to comply with such an instruction.
What is conceivable, however, according to the expert, is employment contract regulations, according to which the tip is distributed among the employees. However, this requires the consent of the employees, as it goes on to say. "Such regulations cannot be imposed unilaterally," explains the labor lawyer, according to the report.
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How much tip is appropriate?
How much tip you give is, of course, up to the guests. A rule of thumb is that five to ten percent of the invoice amount in restaurants is common in this country. But if you like, you can and should give more. Tips are common in many industries – this also applies, for example, to the delivery service or the hairdresser.
Meanwhile, certain professions are not allowed to accept tips at all. These include, for example, civil servants, postmen or conductors.