Read the menu or the reservation note for the house's party size and the percent it adds. Pew's November 9, 2023 chapter says restaurants have imposed automatic service charges for years, typically only on larger parties, and that some newer charges on every customer can exceed 20% of the check. Do not pay the printed line twice. Whether that line is a tip or a service charge is the gratuity checker, which quotes the IRS pages.
What the house adds
The percent and the headcount are the restaurant's policy. Ask when you reserve: "Do you add a gratuity for this party?" Pew's chapter says the older practice was typically limited to larger parties. The same chapter says some charges now apply to every customer and can exceed 20% of the check.
If nothing is added, the Emily Post Institute range is still 15% to 20% of the pre-tax bill. The restaurant guide covers an ordinary table.
On a banquet contract, a service charge and an administrative fee can be different lines. Ask in writing who receives each one before the event.
How to read the bill
Find the line before anyone taps a tip button. Useful phrases: gratuity, auto gratuity, service charge, party gratuity, and "gratuity included." Then look at the math. Eighteen percent of the food and drinks should be close to the dollars printed. If the check shows food of $240 and a gratuity of $43.20, that is 18% and it is already there.
Three outcomes follow:
- The charge is mandatory and it is the gratuity. You do not add another 18% or 20%. An extra amount you choose, for service that was clearly better than the policy assumed, is optional.
- The charge is optional. You can change it or remove it. If you remove it, leave an ordinary 15% to 20% yourself. Walking out with neither the printed charge nor a tip is a zero, not a correction.
- The wording does not say whether staff receive it. Ask. The gratuity checker quotes the IRS on a compulsory line versus a blank tip line.
Card tablets make the double tip easy. The suggested buttons may calculate 18%, 20%, and 25% on a total that already includes the automatic 18%. Tapping 20% on that screen is not "a little extra." On a $240 food bill it is another $48, for a combined $91.20, which is 38% of the food. Type a custom amount, including zero, when the gratuity is already in the total.
When an extra amount makes sense
Add an amount you choose when the service was better than the printed policy: a server who managed a complicated order, a long celebration, or a problem they fixed without being asked. Another full 20% on top of the printed charge is a second tip, unless you have done that math and you mean it.
Do not cross out a mandatory charge unless the restaurant says it is optional or it was applied in error. If the service was poor, ask a manager to adjust the charge they added.
Any extra you choose can stay on the pre-tax food total. The pre-tax guide shows why that gap grows on a large check.
Splitting it across the party
Once the gratuity is in the total, split the total, not the food alone. Everyone who ate owes a share of that charge. Treating the auto-gratuity as the cardholder's personal gift is how the person who volunteered a credit card subsidizes the table.
If you are itemizing because orders were far apart, apply the same 18% to each seat's food, or split the printed gratuity in proportion to each seat's food. Both methods land in the same place if the printed percentage matches the one you use. Shared bottles go on the seats that drank them. The split guide works through a four-person itemized example. Leftover cents should be rounded up per person so the cardholder is not short.
Say the policy when you sit down. A one-sentence warning prevents the "I only brought my share of the food" problem.
Worked example
Party of eight, $240 food, 18% included
Eighteen percent of $240 is $43.20. Food plus gratuity is $283.20, before tax. Eight people is $35.40 each, an even split with no leftover cent. If this 18% is already printed, do not add it again. Use the calculator at 18% only to see the charge, or set the tip to 0% and enter $283.20 if you are splitting a total that already includes it.
The double-tip version, for contrast: 20% of $240 added on top of the included $43.20 is another $48. Combined gratuity $91.20, which is 38% of the food. That is the tablet mistake. If you want a true extra 2% because the service was excellent, 2% of $240 is $4.80, about $0.60 per person. The custom-tip link is $240 split eight ways at 2%, and you would add that only on top of the printed 18%, not instead of a missing tip.
Matt Totty writes this for TipSlice as general information. The menu controls the percentage. The IRS label for a required line is on the gratuity checker.
Sources
- Pew Research Center, recent developments in tipping (November 9, 2023) — automatic service charges were typically for larger parties; some newer charges apply to every customer and can exceed 20% of the check.
- Emily Post Institute, General Tipping Guide — 15–20% pre-tax when you are leaving the tip yourself.
- Emily Post Institute, Finer Points of Tipping — pre-tax tipping, which matters more on a large check.
More from TipSlice
Paste the printed line into the gratuity checker before you add another percent. What a server actually keeps after tip-out is covered in tip-out and tip pooling. Splitting the $35.40 share is in how to split a bill fairly.