Quebec’s tipping law gets mixed reactions from Montreal restaurants – Montreal

Julia Dougall-Picard springs into action as customers settle in for lunch at Frite Alors in downtown Montreal’s Quartier Latin neighborhood.

The 20-year-old works as a waiter at the popular restaurant chain, serving burgers and beer several times a week.

She takes home a low hourly wage and makes up the difference with tips left by restaurant customers. But the amount she makes on each sale is about to change.

Quebec on Thursday introduced a bill that would regulate how merchants determine tips. Businesses would have to calculate tips based on the pre-tax price.

For example, on a $100 restaurant bill, the suggested tip is calculated as a percentage of $100, not the total after-tax amount of $114.98.

Quebec’s consumer protection minister, Simon Jolin-Barrette, said Thursday that there is “growing pressure around tipping” and that people are often paying more than they intended. But workers in the province’s restaurants and bars are divided over the impact the legislation will have on the industry and the people who work there.

Dougall-Picard believes the change is welcome.

“I don’t mind the change that much. Honestly, it’s just a few dollars or cents to me and it doesn’t change much in my life. As a customer, I’d rather pay a tip on what I ordered and not pay the taxes,” she said in an interview.

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Although Dougall-Picard makes most of her income from tips, she thinks the province’s proposed accounting system will actually encourage her guests to be more generous.

“We as waiters and waitresses really rely on tips because our wages are below minimum wage. I think if people … didn’t have to tip on top of taxes … then maybe people would tip more,” she said.

But Jaskaran Singh, manager of Arriba Burrito restaurant, located just down the road in the lively neighbourhood, is disappointed.

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“It’s never really been a legal requirement to tip a waiter, and I’ve been a waiter for a while, … and I’ve worked in a lot of restaurants before I came to this restaurant, and it’s always been a struggle that our minimum wage is so low,” he said.

Singh says the restaurant regularly encounters guests, usually tourists, who refuse to tip.

Further down the street, Marc-Antoine Bourdages, the manager of restaurant-bar Brasseurs du Monde, says he’s happy with the change.

“It doesn’t matter to me at all,” he said, adding that he doesn’t think most clients are aware that the suggested tips are calculated based on the total amount after taxes.

But Bourdages admits that the bartenders and servers he manages — who rely on tips for much of their income — probably don’t share his opinion. “I’m pretty sure I’m alone in that idea. My staff won’t be happy about that,” he said.

Martin Vézina, vice-president of public affairs at the Quebec Restaurant Association, says the change will leave dining room staff with less money in their pockets, but it won’t have a major impact on the sector as a whole.

While restaurants choose the suggested tip percentages, Vézina says the payment processing companies that provide the payment terminals are actually the ones programming the suggested tips on top of the after-tax amount.

“It doesn’t cause that much of a problem for the industry,” he said, explaining that restaurant owners may actually end up paying less in credit card fees for tips, as well as less income tax on reported tips.

But he also sees the bill as a missed opportunity to implement measures to address “no-show” reservations, when customers reserve a table at a restaurant but never show up. He says no-shows cost Quebec restaurants an average of $47,000 a year.

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