Service charge: Staff at many restaurants say will seek pay hike, others fear tips may dwindle

Waiters, chefs and other restaurant workers have expressed their displeasure over the move to bar levying of service charge, with many of them saying they will “seek a pay raise” from owners to offset the loss and others apprehensive that even tips given by patrons out of goodwill “may now dwindle”.

Uttarakhand-native Prakash Singh Koranga, 27, a chef who works at an outlet of popular franchise Moti Mahal Deluxe restaurant in south Delhi, said service charge which gets proportionally divided among the staff acts as an “extra income” and “incentive also to give our best at job”.

“I have been in this industry for about five years now. As a chef, I will continue to cook the best meals I can for guests, but the decision has affected our morale, as now we would have to be content with our salary only. Is it possible to survive in this time of inflation with just a salary of Rs 14,000. We will have to follow the new norms, so I will ask for a pay raise from my employer to compensate,” he told

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