Earlier this year, Milwaukee e-mailers expressed outrage over an alleged scam operation by a popular local Mexican restaurant that was purportedly charging gratuity on their bills as a "service charge." This practice, it was said, confounded diners who didn't read their bills and potentially double-tipped their servers.

Granted, the distinct possibly lies that the servers were not pointing out this line item to every diner, but in reality, the concept of "gratuity included" is hardly new in Milwaukee or any other hospitality marketplace.

Many Milwaukee restaurants include gratuity on tables of six or more, but, understandably, tables of two with this service charge were likely surprised to find a similar charge on their bills.

Before we get into how much tips should be and the social practices surrounding tipping in restaurants, let's take a step back and investigate further why we tip in the first place.

A little help from Wikipedia and some old school etymology books provide us with the background and history of tipping. The word tip originates from the 16th century verb tip, which meant "to give unexpectedly." In other words, tipping is something that is given as an above and beyond form of compensation for a service job done well.
In the United States, and specifically in Milwaukee, this form of compensation has become increasingly complex over the years.

A tip is supposed to be calculated from the cost of goods and services, minus sales tax. As a general rule, it is figured at an average of 15 percent. Some people determine their tip based on food service without drinks, which is generally acceptable, especially in the case where a nominally priced dinner is accompanied by a very expensive bottle of wine.

Some diners will tip 15 percent on food items and then 5-10 percent on beverages. Others determine their tip based on their entire bill including tax, and still others on the number of diners and/or drinks consumed. And likely there are hundreds of thousands of other people who each determine their tips using other methodologies, some which may be more acceptable to servers than others.

The dollar amount which goes to the server initially then may be distributed by the restaurants in different manners. Some servers keep all their tips. Others pool their tips with all the other servers on the "floor." Some restaurants require a "tip out" to the kitchen, bar staff, and dishwasher of varying percentages, others mandate a minimum IRS tip declaration of 20 percent of sales.

In Milwaukee, servers typically start out at $2.33/hour, bartenders somewhere in the $5 to $6.50/hour range, and then tips ring on top of that.

In Milwaukee, most places do not follow what is common practice in Brazil and other countries of the aforementioned included service charge, although we do commonly follow the practice for larger tables.

Robert Weiss, proprietor of Shaker's, a 25-year Milwaukee mainstay, notes, "We practice special gratuity of 18% for dinner tables for six or more; we charge 20% for specialty dinners which have an unusual theme or exotic products and foodstuffs.

These types of dinner parties attract more sophisticated diners who have the types of backgrounds where they expect to see gratuity as a service charge line item."

But, Weiss notes, the included gratuities seem not to be as needed in the more recent past here in Milwaukee. "The tipping environment has improved tremendously in the last several years-the entire restaurant and hospitality landscape has improved," he said. "Once upon a time it was only those places that had a niche market where the servers did well in tips, now no more."

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