Kitchener restaurant, brewery want you to skip the tip

Going out to eat often comes with the pressure to leave a tip, but a handful of businesses across Ontario want to put an end to that custom, including two in Kitchener.

Odd Duck Wine and Provisions and TWB Brewing have both banned tipping while also guaranteeing they will pay all their employees a living wage.

The living wage is calculated every year by the Ontario Living Wage Network, which takes a number of costs like rent, food and childcare into consideration. It's currently $19.95 in Waterloo region.

Jon Rennie, the co-owner and culinary director of Odd Duck Wine and Provisions, said the new downtown Kitchener restaurant decided to ban tipping because it can create a power imbalance that has the potential of putting employees in harm's way.

"We've been witness to sexual assault and harassment and all kinds of things that have just been kind of normalized within the industry," he said.

"Yes, there's the argument that you can make a whole bunch of money in tips in a single night and the response is, 'but at what cost?'" he said. "If you have to watch out for a behaviour that's not appropriate, or you have to feel like you have to accept it in order to pay your rent, it's really not a nice place to be."

Alex Szaflarska, co-owner of TWB Brewing, said they decided to go gratuity-free for similar reasons.

"Often the way that people are tipped and the decisions made around tipping are not actually tied to level of service. They're tied to things like attractiveness or the way folks are feeling that day or social pressures," she said.

TWB co-owner Pete Baginski said banning tips also helps keep everyone's paycheck consistent.

"It's going to be consistent in what they [employees] can expect out of any kind of shift," he said. "So there's no rivalry on who gets the busy Friday night or who gets the slow Tuesdays. It doesn't matter what shift you work, everyone gets the same and everyone puts the same amount of work here."

Baginski said when customers want to leave a tip, they're asked to drop it into a jar that collects money for a different charity every month.

For instance, June's collections will go to Spectrum, an organization focused on supporting the local LGBTQ community.

Ontario Living Wage Network spokesperson Craig Pickthorne said the idea of going gratuity-free is part of a growing trend for employers looking for a better way to run their business.

"Food and beverage industry workers rely on tips to be part of their income," he said.