Montreal bars, restaurants react to Quebec bill to regulate merchant tipping requests

People enjoy the warm weather and dine on a terrasse in Montreal, Thursday, May 12, 2022. (Ryan Remiorz, The Canadian Press)

Julia Dougall-Picard swings into action when customers settle in for lunch at Frite Alors in Montreal's downtown Quartier Latin neighbourhood.

The 20-year-old works as a server at the popular restaurant chain, dishing out burgers and beers several times a week.

She takes home a low hourly wage, making up the difference through tips left by the restaurant's customers. But the amount of money she'll make on each sale is about to change.

Quebec tabled a bill on Thursday that would regulate how merchants determine suggested tips, forcing businesses to calculate them based on the price before tax.

On a restaurant bill of $100, for instance, suggested tips would be calculated as a percentage of $100, not the after-tax total of $114.98.

Quebec's minister responsible for consumer protection, Simon Jolin-Barrette, said Thursday that there is a "growing pressure around tips," and people often end up paying more than they intend. But workers in the province’s restaurants and bars are divided about the effect the legislation will have on the industry and the people it employs.

For Dougall-Picard's part, the change is welcome.

“I don't really mind the change. Honestly, to me it's just a few dollars or cents and it doesn't change much to my life, and as a customer, I'd rather be paying tips on what I ordered and not on the taxes,” she said in an interview.

Even though Dougall-Picard makes the bulk of her earnings from tips, she thinks the province's proposed calculation system may actually prod patrons to be more generous.

“We really rely on tips as waiters and waitresses because our salary is lower than minimum wage, so I think that maybe if people … don't have to tip on top of the taxes that … it might encourage people to tip more,” she said.

But Jaskaran Singh, manager at restaurant Arriba Burrito located a bit farther down the bustling neighbourhood strip, is disappointed.

“It's never been actually a law to tip to a server, and I've been a server for a while, … serving in a lot of restaurants before this one too, and it's always been hard that our minimum wage is very low,” he said.

Singh says the restaurant regularly deals with customers, usually tourists, who refuse to tip.

Farther down the street, Marc-Antoine Bourdages, who manages the resto-bar Brasseurs du Monde, says he is okay with the change.

“I don't mind it at all,” he said, adding that he does not think most clients are aware that suggested tips are calculated on after-tax totals.

But Bourdages admits the bartenders and waiters he manages – who rely on tips for a large part of their income – likely do not share his view. “I'm pretty sure I stand alone with that idea. My staff's not going to be happy with that,” he said.

Martin Vézina, vice-president of public affairs at the Quebec Restaurant Association, says the change will leave dining room staff with fewer dollars in their pockets but won't have a significant impact on the industry at large.

Although restaurants choose the percentages for suggested tips, Vézina says the payment processing companies that provide point of sale terminals are in fact the ones who program the tip suggestions on top of the amount after tax.

“It doesn't cause that much trouble for the industry,” he said, explaining that restaurant owners may even end up paying less in credit card fees on tips as well as less income tax on declared tips.

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

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2024.