Miss Manners: Do I need to tip at a restaurant that has a service charge?

DEAR MISS MANNERS: Do I need to tip at a restaurant that has a service charge? It seems like paying twice for the same thing.

GENTLE READER: Actually, you never need to tip (which is not to say that you shouldn’t). Nominally, the system is voluntary.

It depends on two common emotions: shame and empathy. Shame, because tipping is expected, and you don’t want to look cheap. Empathy, because you feel for people who are hardworking and underpaid.

Furthermore, Miss Manners is offended by the argument some restaurateurs use to justify extra charges: that if they were to build the cost of labor into their prices, as other businesses do, customers would not stand for the increased amount. Arithmetic was never her strongest subject, but even she can figure out that whether the charge is built into the price or added as a service fee -- or factored into expected tips, which could be larger than the fees, but could also be skipped entirely -- the cost to the customer is the same.

You are right that a service charge, if not accompanied by a no-tipping policy, is double dipping. You are absolved from feeling shame if you do not then tip, but Miss Manners never wants to discourage empathy.

(Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, [email protected]; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)