Are You Obligated to Pay Automatic Gratuity?

Ask Tip20!

Question: Hello, when visiting an establishment in the US which automatically adds a 20% tip to your bill, are you obligated to pay the tip portion of the bill? I’m asking this after visiting such an establishment where the service was absolutely deplorable and under normal circumstances, I would have left a very small tip if any at all. Granted that there are people who do not tip appropriately with any level of service although this does not constitute the majority by any means. Thank you in advance for any information you can provide regarding this “mandatory tip”.

~ Paul

Tip20!: In the U.S. (and  everywhere else that we know of) there are no laws requiring you to tip. Many restaurants do have an automatic gratuity that is added to a bill if the party is larger because it protects the server from being under tipped with the assumption that the server has done a good job..

If you have experienced terrible service then you should not feel obligated to leave that “required” amount, but you should have a discussion with the management explaining why you feel the service was under par. Under most normal circumstances the manager would wave the gratuity obligation and have a “teachable moment” with the sever(s).