A tale of two tipping policies

Everyone is trying to figure it out.

First: a popular and much loved restaurant makes things super confusing. The fact that the surcharge goes 100% to the employees. Great. I don’t love the approach because it feels like a hidden fee, but at least they are giving it to the employees. But why only 4.5% in that case? Is this supposed to replace tipping? The credit card receipt still included tipping lines. Are you asking me to do math, eg subtract 4.5% from the amount I would normally tip? I don’t want to do that math, I don’t like the surcharge approach in general, and I am unclear what the right thing to do is.

Second: very cool bookstore coffee shop. This is the way. Now, barista workers have a somewhat different compensation picture than servers in a restaurant, so I don’t know if this is a generalizable rule, or if it should be… but it feels like the right answer to me. Simple. Transparent to everyone. Reasonable. (They do still have a donation box, which the business gives to a named charity, which changes each month, and to which Ada‘s provides a matching contribution.)