A server says a table of eight almost left her an extra $3 on a $178 check, then crossed it out when they remembered the restaurant’s automatic 18% gratuity was already there.
@cianacirce, a TikTok content creator, posted a video that received more than 560 views. In it, she discusses a table that left her a marginal tip, calling their final total “criminal behavior.”
‘If You Can’t Afford to Eat Out, Then … Say So.’
Cianacirce says her restaurant adds an automatic gratuity to large tables: “18% for parties of eight or more.” She says she flagged it when she left the table with their bill.
She notes the bill came to about $178. “Not bad for eight people,” she says.
The receipt told the rest. After the shift, she says, she found the tip line filled in and scratched out, with the total written as $178—the gratuity folded in. She could still read the number underneath: $3.
“I am good at my job,” she adds.
The $3, stacked on a night of compliments, is what she can’t get past.
She ends the video with a comment aimed at the table: “[Expletive], if you can’t afford to eat out, then [expletive] say so.”
Commenters Debate the Table’s Intentions
Commenters discussed the post thoroughly.
“While I definitely hear you. I think you should turn that anger [toward] your employer and wonder why he is not paying you more,” said one person, noting what might be the primary issue.
Another person made a deduction: “Maybe [the automatic tip] was [$30] … They were thinking of tipping and realized gratuity was already included, so proceeded to scratch off???”
But the server appears to have expected even more. “They filled in the total line and scratched that off too … Then rewrote the total [toward] the bottom,” she replied.
Already on There
The 18% she’s angry about wasn’t a tip to begin with. Under the IRS’s Revenue Ruling 2012-18, a mandatory charge a restaurant adds to a large party is a service charge, not a gratuity the diner chooses.
The agency tells restaurants to book the money as “non-tip wages.” Its own illustration is a restaurant adding 18% to parties of six or more. By that reading, the table had already paid the only tip the house required; the $3 was the part they actually got to decide.
But what servers get can vary by state. In Washington, for example, voluntary tips aren’t taxed. Instead, a mandatory gratuity is treated as a taxable service charge.
Pew Research Center’s November 2023 survey of nearly 12,000 adults found that about 7 in 10 diners say they’re asked to tip in more places than five years ago, which is leading to tip fatigue.
The same share oppose automatic charges on a bill. When asked what they’d usually leave for a sit-down meal, “a majority of Americans (57%) say they would tip 15% or less,” but the “or less” is likely out of frustration.
@cianacirce
Subplot News reached out to Cianacirce via TikTok direct message and comment.
