Restaurant customer arrested for crime of undertipping

[hot_pastrami]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

If it's mentioned on the menu, then it's enforceable. To get around it, order separate checks.

Well, the question of it's enforcability hasn't really been tested in court, so your presupposition may or may not pan out. The court will have to answer the question of whether gratuities should be enforcable. By definition, gratuity is "A favor or gift, usually in the form of money, given in return for service." "Favor" and "gift" are both voluntary. I'm interested to see how it turns out, though finding out may prove difficult since media sources rarely follow up on stories such as this.

If a customer is required to pay gratuity, it should really be called a "service charge," or something equally indicative of it's mandatory status.