The juke of Earls: Restaurant tests mandatory hospitality charge, no tipping policy

No tips, gratuity affixed Jamie Mauracher gathers reaction to the Earls.67 pilot project where tipping is replaced with a 16% hospitality charged

The Earls chain of restaurants has introduced a no tipping pilot project at its recently renovated, prototype location in Bankers Hall where a flat percentage will be applied to all bills.

Craig Blize, Earls vice-president of operations, believes the restaurant’s unorthodox, for North America, approach to tipping will become commonplace in the future.

“What we’ve seen in the restaurant business is the restaurant business is evolving, it’s ever-changing,” said Blize. “In our normal tipping model, 80 to 90 per cent of (the tip) goes to the server and it creates a disparity of hourly pay from our cooks to our servers.”

Blize says the restaurant’s current 280 staff members, who he refers to as partners, love working in an environment where they know what wage they’re going to receive on an hourly level.

“What this allows us to do is to control the 16 per cent hospitality charge so we can redistribute it to all of our hourly partners, pay them a higher consistent wage.”

Earls will monitor the gratuity policy to see if it promotes teamwork, engagement and improves the overall experience for restaurant guests. Throughout the six month pilot project, guests and staff are encouraged to provide feedback.

Business etiquette expert Sue Jacques says customers may not embrace the change to the tipping policy.

“I think they need to be prepared for some backlash from some people who are not happy having their tip be dictated to them,” said Jacques.

Earls’ guests are discouraged from tipping in excess of the mandatory hospitality rate. Should additional funds be left behind, the additional gratuity will be divided equally amongst all staff.

According to Blize, Alberta’s impending introduction of a $15 per hour minimum wage in 2018 was not a factor in the restaurant’s decision to test no tipping.