Latest news with #gratuity
Malay Mail
7 days ago
- Politics
- Malay Mail
‘Fake and fraudulent': Viral RM26m gratuity letter ‘never issued', says works minister
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 5 — Works Minister Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi has denied the issuance of a letter dated July 28, 2025, which has gone viral on social media, that was supposedly from the ministry regarding a gratuity payment to an individual. Nanta said that the letter was fake and was never sent out by the ministry or by him as the minister. 'The ministry never issued any official invitation for such a gratuity payment ceremony. As such, I advise the public not to be deceived by such documents, which clearly contain elements of fraud and impersonation,' he said. He said the ministry had taken note of the matter and is working together with the authorities to conduct further investigation. Those who have any doubts about the authenticity of documents or communications allegedly from the ministry are advised to contact the ministry's official channels via its website at or the ministry's official hotline. Previously, a letter had gone viral on social media claiming that a gratuity payment of over RM26 million was supposed to be presented to the next of kin of an individual at a ceremony to be held at the ministry here today. — Bernama
Yahoo
28-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The real reason we tip
We've all been there. Maybe it's when you grab a coffee in the morning or when you finish up a dinner out with friends. Maybe it's when you least expect it, like at the merch table at a concert. You tap your card, only to be confronted with the dreaded tip screen. There's a lot of talk about how much to tip and if you even should tip (more on that later), but why do we add gratuity in America in the first place? Nina Mast has the answer. She's an analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank in Washington, DC. The point of the tip is to make up the difference between the minimum wage and the tipped minimum wage. 'The tipped minimum wage is the lower minimum wage that employers can pay tipped workers with the expectation that tips will bring their pay up to the regular minimum wage rate,' she says. 'Under federal law, the tipped minimum wage is $2.13 an hour. So tipped workers need to earn an additional $5.12 in tips to bring them up to the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour.' On this week's episode of Explain It to Me, Vox's weekly call-in podcast, we find out how this system began and why we still have it. Below is an excerpt of our conversation with Mast, edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. If you'd like to submit a question, send an email to askvox@ or call 1-800-618-8545. Where does tipping in America come from in the first place? Tipping goes back to the pre-Civil War times in the US. There were wealthy Americans who were vacationing in Europe, and they noticed this practice of tipping where if you had good service, you gave a small extra fee on top of what you paid. Then, tipping started to fade as a practice in Europe but persisted in the US. We can tie that back to the abolition of slavery. Once slavery was abolished following the Civil War, workers who were formerly enslaved in agriculture and domestic service continued to do these same jobs, but employers didn't want to pay them. So instead of actually just paying them their wage, they suggested that the customer paid a small tip to Black workers for their services. That's how tipping started proliferating across service sector jobs and became the predominant way that workers in these jobs were paid. How did the restaurant industry start to do this? It really goes back to the formation of the National Restaurant Association. From the very beginning, going back to the early 1920s, they united around a common goal of keeping labor costs low, essentially lobbying against any efforts to raise wages for tipped workers and to eliminate the tipped minimum wage. It sounds like this whole policy is a direct legacy of trying to keep Black people from getting the same minimum wage as other workers. When were service sectors included in the national minimum wage? It wasn't until the mid-1960s that tipped workers got the same rights as other workers under changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act. In the mid-1960s — this is during the civil rights movement, a few years after the March on Washington, which called for stronger minimum wage protections — amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act established a wage floor for tipped workers. It also increased protections for workers in agriculture, schools, laundries, nursing homes — a lot of sectors in which Black people were disproportionately employed and in which workers of color are still overrepresented even today. This was a big deal. Something like a third of the Black population gained protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act through these amendments in 1966. Even after these amendments, the FLSA continued to exclude farm workers from overtime protections, and domestic workers didn't gain rights until the 1970s. It was a significant change, and a big deal, for tipped workers to be covered, but there was a huge catch in the amendment. It established a lower minimum wage that tipped workers could be paid through the creation of the tip credit system. And that's still what is in use today. This tip credit essentially allowed employers to count the tips that were received by their staff against half of the minimum wage that they were required to pay. In 1996, the FLSA was amended again to raise the minimum wage federally from $4.25 to $5.15. Essentially, that froze the tipped minimum wage at $2.13 an hour, while the non-tipped minimum wage continued to go up. The tipped minimum wage has been stuck at $2.13 an hour since 1991, even though the federal minimum wage has been increased multiple times. And that's still the situation we're in now. Why hasn't this changed? It seems like it would be easier to give everyone the same minimum wage, and you wouldn't have to worry about tipping. I think that's in large part due to the lobbying and advocacy efforts of the National Restaurant Association, its affiliates — groups like the US Chamber of Commerce — and other employer groups that have fought tirelessly to prevent the minimum wage from being raised, both for tipped workers and for other workers. There is a proposal in Congress to raise the minimum wage to $17 an hour by 2030, and it would completely phase out this tipped minimum wage so tipped workers would receive the same minimum wage as everyone else. Some states have already eliminated the tipped minimum wage, but a lot more states haven't been able to do so yet. In most states, the minimum wage for tipped workers is still less than $4 an hour. How does the tip credit system work in practice? Employers are legally required to make up the difference if workers aren't receiving enough in tips to get them up to the regular minimum wage. But in practice, it's extremely difficult to enforce that rule. It's largely left up to the workers themselves to track their hours, their tips, and make some complicated calculations about what they're actually earning per hour per week. Then they have to confront their employer if it seems like they're not actually receiving the minimum wage, which obviously introduces a whole host of issues related to power dynamics. Not only is it difficult to calculate and keep track of, but it's also difficult for workers to demand what they're owed. As a result, it's largely not enforced. Workers who are already earning much lower wages than workers in non-tipped occupations are highly at risk of wage theft. I think as consumers, we're initially taught that tips are a way to reward good service. How should we think about tipping? I think this is a big misconception. People don't realize that they're actually paying the lion's share of their server's wages through their tips. Unfortunately, when you fail to tip your server, you're actually denying them their wage. We don't have the luxury in the US of having the system that you describe where you can pay a tip for particularly good service or pay a smaller tip to indicate that you didn't get good service. How much do you typically tip? I tip 20 percent as a standard, and sometimes, for a really good service, I'll tip more. I think that's basically the standard at this point in the US. It does get tricky, because we've seen a proliferation of tipping across lots of different transactions where a service wasn't necessarily rendered. I think customers are increasingly frustrated by that, especially as the costs of things have gone up. But I hope customers target their frustration not at tipped workers but towards the employers and the lobbying groups that have fought for decades to preserve and expand the system. When you're tipping, remember that you're actually paying your server's wage, and that's a problem that we need to be solving by putting the onus on employers to pay their workers. Solve the daily Crossword
Free Malaysia Today
25-06-2025
- Free Malaysia Today
Ex-teacher gets back RM58,000 docked from gratuity over alleged misconduct
The Court of Appeal said former secondary school teacher N James Arulchelvam was never given a chance to respond to misconduct allegations. PUTRAJAYA : The government must return approximately RM58,000 to a former secondary school teacher, the amount that was deducted from his gratuity after he was alleged to have been absent from school for 192 days while in service. This follows the Court of Appeal's unanimous decision today to dismiss the government's final appeal, ruling that N James Arulchelvam had not committed misconduct as defined in a circular and under the Public Officers (Conduct and Discipline) Regulations 1993. A three-member bench chaired by Justice Supang Lian said the High Court had not erred in ruling in Arulchelvam's favour. 'We find the respondent had not been served a show cause to respond to the alleged misconduct,' she said, ordering the government to also pay RM10,000 in costs. Justices Lim Chong Fong and Alwi Abdul Wahab also sat on the panel. Arulchelvam, 64, whose last posting was at SM Engku Husain in Semenyih, Selangor, was diagnosed with a medical condition and categorised as a special case due to his illness. In early 2017, he was assigned only six teaching periods over two or three days a week, meaning he was required to be in school only on those days. Arulchelvam then decided to go on optional retirement in late 2018. However, a new principal at the school later initiated disciplinary proceedings against him for allegedly being absent from school for 192 days – 108 days in 2016 and 84 days in 2017. The government, through the education ministry, subsequently deducted RM58,004.90 from his gratuity for the days he was said to be absent. In his suit filed in January 2019, Arulchelvam said he had been present at school during the relevant period but had not clocked in. The sessions court dismissed his suit, but the High Court later allowed his appeal and awarded him the deducted sum. Lawyers Walter Pereira and Naveen Chandra Bose represented Arulchelvam, while senior federal counsels Nur Aifaa Che Abdullah, Noor Fadzila Ishak and Sheryn Yong appeared for the government.
Daily Mail
24-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Fancy Sydney restaurant sparks outrage over detail that's easy to miss on the bill: 'Don't accept that crap'
A Sydney restaurant has come under fire after a customer discovered a tip had been added to the bill without their consent. The customer had visited Lana Dining, a fine dining Italian restaurant located in Sydney's Circular Quay. In a Reddit post on Friday, the customer shared a photo of their bill, revealing that a seven per cent gratuity had been added to the total. The original bill was $221 for the 12 items ordered, but it increased to $236.45 after a $15.47 service charge was included. 'This is the second occasion I have seen this at a fine dining Sydney restaurant,' the customer wrote. 'Is this slowly becoming a norm? Is the gratuity actually shared with the staff who goes above and beyond?' The customer noted that the seven per cent gratuity was mentioned on the menu, but only in 'very tiny print.' Social media users expressed outrage, calling the restaurant's optional gratuity a sneaky tactic to extract more money. 'Sneaking in a service charge and calling it gratuity is underhanded -especially when it's not clear if the staff even see that money,' one said. 'Tipping should be a choice, not something quietly forced on customers.' 'Places like this should be made famous for scummy tactics of forced gratuity,' a second said. 'I feel like it's questionable to include it on a bill to make it look like it's mandatory - very misleading,' a third said. Others slammed the restaurant for being out of touch with Australian values and claimed hospitality was following the tipping culture often seen in America. 'Don't accept that crap. This isn't America, and they sure as hell better not try to add the cost without telling you,' one said. The restaurant, owned by hospitality giant House Made Hospitality, fired back at the criticism, claiming the optional gratuity was communicated clearly to customers. 'The optional seven per cent gratuity at Lana is communicated at multiple stages during the booking process (on our website, in the booking widget, in the confirmation email), written on the menus, and verbalised again when the bill is presented,' a spokesperson said. 'It is designed to reward our team for their dedication and hard work. It also serves to incentivise exceptional service and support increased tenure within our industry, at a time when experience is hard to find, and living costs are increasing.' The restaurant added the surcharge was not mandatory and a customer is able to opt-out of the gratuity at any point, should they request to not pay it. It added that every dollar of the gratuity goes directly to the team working during the shift, including those in the kitchen. The restaurant's gratuities are managed through a third-party software program, which it said ensured transparency and was the fairest approach for tipping. However, social media users were not convinced with many claiming the restaurant put customers in an awkward position if they wanted to opt-out of the gratuity. 'That is sooo NOT cool. Puts customers in such an awkward position - I guess that's the point,' one person said. 'They're counting on the fact that a good number of diners will feel too awkward to ask for it to be removed,' a second person wrote. A third agreed: 'Exactly, you have to look the person in the eye who won't be getting the extra money. Please venues just pay your staff above award wages and incorporate that into your price'. It comes after another Sydneysider was left fuming when the restaurant he visited added a generous tip onto the bill without asking first. Mark and his wife were eating out at Tilda, a Sofitel Wentworth restaurant in Sydney's CBD, when they were presented with the bill. On his receipt towards the bottom was a 'gratuity' surcharge of seven per cent which meant he was lumped with an additional $18.50 on top of the $142.80 he spent on the meals. Tilda is also owned by hospitality giant House Made Hospitality. Unlike other countries, particularly the United States, tipping isn't expected or mandated in Australia. Restaurants in Australia are permitted to add an automatic service charge or tip to their bills but they must abide by strict legal requirements. If a restaurant chooses to add a gratuity or service charge it must be transparent about the fee and also provide customers with an option to opt-out of the extra cost. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission explains businesses must be transparent about optional charges and ensure customers are not misled. Customers must be able to request the removal of any automatic gratuity before paying the bill.
CBS News
12-06-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Which U.S. states tip most? A new study breaks down gratuity rates across the country.
What the CBO says about Trump's proposed tax cuts and the national debt Americans often voice their frustrations over tipping, but that hasn't stopped them from doing so when eating out. Consumers spent an estimated $77.6 billion on tips for food purchased at restaurants, bars and other eateries in 2023, according to a new study by LendingTree. The analysis, which draws on the most recent government data available, gives readers a snapshot of how much Americans tip and in which states they tip the most. It found that tipping rates tend to be higher in states where people eat out more. LendingTree also looked at which states drop the most money to dine out. Hint: It's not New York as some might suspect. See where your state ranks in terms of tipping below. Where do people tip the most? New Hampshire residents are the No. 1 tippers in the country, according to the LendingTree study. On average, they leave a gratuity of 16.07% of spending on food away from home — falling within the standard range of 15% to 20% tips at restaurants. New Hampshire's average tipping rate is four times that of the nation's lowest tipping state, which is Utah at 4.09%. But that's not to say Utah residents are stingy. As LendingTree points out, average tipping rates hinge on how much people in each state spend on food outside the home — which includes full-service restaurants as well as fast food place and even vending machines. In other words, not all food that's consumed outside the home is purchased at establishments where tipping is common. "If people in one state tend to dine at full-service restaurants far more often than those in another state, it stands to reason their overall percentage spent on tips would be higher," LendingTree Chief Consumer Financial Analyst Matt Schulz wrote in the study. Next in line after New Hampshire is Washington D.C. Denizens of the U.S. capital tip roughly 12.65% on average, when they eat out. LendingTree's data indicates that the highest tippers tend to be located on the East Coast, while the lowest are concentrated in the South and Western U.S. See the full rankings below. New Hampshire: 16.07% District of Columbia: 12.65% South Carolina: 11.17% Minnesota: 10.11% North Carolina: 9.75% Washington: 9.51% Vermont: 9.31% Nebraska: 9.12% Rhode Island: 8.54% Maine: 8.18% Indiana: 7.96% Delaware: 7.77% New York: 7.27% Massachusetts: 7.26% Florida: 7.23% New Jersey: 7.02% Connecticut: 6.83% Montana: 6.81% Illinois: 6.70% Colorado: 6.52 Pennsylvania: 6.44% Hawaii: 6.39% Michigan: 6.39% Oregon: 6.38% North Dakota: 6.30% Oklahoma: 6.25% Alaska: 6.25% Tennessee: 6.22% Nevada: 6.19% Louisiana: 6.16% California: 6.15% Virginia: 6.13% Missouri: 6.02% Texas: 6.00% Wyoming: 5.96% Georgia: 5.92% Ohio: 5.88% Kansas: 5.76% Maryland: 5.73% Wisconsin: 5.67% West Virginia: 5.66% Iowa: 5.60% Arizona: 5.57% South Dakota: 5.50% Kentucky: 5.45% New Mexico: 5.43% Arkansas: 5.26% Alabama: 5.21% Idaho: 5.10% Mississippi: 4.91% Utah: 4.09% Which places spend the most on dining out? Spending at restaurants and bars has climbed in recent years as Americans swap home cooking for dining out. In 2023, spending on dining out represented approximately 56% of Americans' food budgets, a 13% increase from 2000. "Since the percentage of spending on food consumed away from home plunged in 2020 due to the pandemic, there have been three consecutive years of significant growth," Matt Schulz wrote. According to LendingTree's analysis, people eat out the most in the nation's capital. D.C. residents spent $10,291 on dining out in 2023, about $3,500 more than residents in Nevada, the runner up. Illinois, on the other hand, saw the biggest increase in money spent on eating out, with dining expenditures climbing 13.5% from 2000 to 2023. Below are the top 10 states in per-capita spending on dining out. District of Columbia: $10,291 Nevada: $6,752 Hawaii: $6,628 California: $5,072 Massachusetts: $4,626 Colorado: $4,579 New York: $4,424 Rhode Island: $4,412 New Hampshire: $4,224 Washington: $4,182 The role of tipping in America With the federal minimum wage for tipped workers set at $2.13 an hour, many workers in service jobs such as waiters, hairdressers and bartenders lean heavily on tips to subsidize their income. Even with tips they still may not reach the standard minimum wage of $7.25, in which case employers are required to step in and make up the difference, per the Fair Labor Standards Act. Tipping in the service industry has recently come into focus with the "No Tax on Tips" — a provision baked into the GOP spending bill that would remove federal taxes from tips for workers who earn less than $160,000. If passed, "No Tax on Tips" could offer relief to the 4 million people in the U.S. who work in tipped occupations, about 2.5% of all U.S. workers, according to the Yale Budget Lab.
