No need to tip

We’re proud to be the first hospitality business in Jersey to become an accredited Living Wage employer. As part of our move to being a Living Wage employer (see below)  and improving the working conditions and pay and benefits received by our team we don’t accept tips any more: when you visit any JPRestaurants restaurant, the price on the menu is the price you pay, with no expectation for a 10% to 15% gratuity or similar mandatory service charge at the end of your meal. Don’t worry, our team are still incentivised to give great service through a higher hourly rate (which saw rates rise up to 30% across the business) and our monthly bonus scheme, which gives employees up to 10% extra pay based on their personal performance, and the performance of the company. We demonstrated  to all our team that their take-home pay now is more than the hourly rates and tips approach that was in place before we introduced the Living Wage and abolished tips. We continue to do this through annual total compensation statements so our team know exactly how much pay they take home. We are entirely transparent in our approach to pay and conditions in a sector which can lack  transparency.

We don’t accept tips as we don’t want customers to feel any pressure to offer a tip  as our team are well paid – if they weren’t they wouldn’t work at JPRestaurants. Tipping can leave a bad taste at the end of a meal for customers, particularly when in some restaurants a mandatory or discretionary tip is added and it’s either not clear or the credit card machine has an additional tipping button before paying. Where guests do choose to leave any cash behind at our restaurants, this is donated to our chosen charity each year.

We believe that our staff shouldn’t have to rely on tips to receive a fair wage for their hard work, and removing tips makes things simpler for our teams and for our guests. If all restaurants followed this approach, which is standard in France and other parts of the world, then we believe the hospitality sector would improve its image as a low paid sector and more people would choose it as a long term career rather than a stepping stone. This would not only make for happier employees, but better service for customers. Tipping has it origins in the abolition of slavery and providing additional pay for workers with low salaries and abolishing it would bring more dignity to dining out. You don’t tip a doctor, retailer or a mechanic, so why tip your server?

We know it might feel a bit odd at first if you receive great service with us, and would like to leave a tip. But there are plenty of other ways to show your appreciation, like coming back to see us again, or telling your friends and family about your experience, which will increase our team incentive payments. We hope other hospitality employers in Jersey follow suit.  It’s one competitive advantage we’d gladly see eroded.

Restaurant and pub customers in Jersey often ask about ethical sourcing of food, waste management and plastic use when dining out. They have been instrumental in making us and others follow better environmental policies. We’d encourage them to ask about fair pay and employment terms too in one of the lowest paid sectors in the Island. With their support. we can make the industry a better place to work.

Living Wage at JPRestaurants

In 2021,  JPRestaurants became the first hospitality business in Jersey to become an accredited Living Wage employer.

It’s important to us that our staff love what they do, and we hope that making sure our skilled team are fairly paid will give them confidence in hospitality as a long-term career.  As a business, we’ve underwritten tips since 2018 so that all staff already earned a Living Wage, but we’re hopeful that this new accreditation will give more transparency and certainty to our employees.  It will also help them plan their personal finances better, whether it’s taking out a loan or mortgage, or budgeting for the future.

Just take a look at the job ads for hospitality workers; its almost impossible to know what they will earn for an hour’s work. Poor working practices such as unpaid overtime, unfair tip distribution, broken promises of expected pay and zero-hours contracts are common in our industry.

We offer full time contracts to all employees who want them, clear benefits and our employees now also have 100% clarity over their pay and don’t need to rely on tips. Everyone at JPRestaurants earns a base salary of at least £12.19 an hour [2023 rate], plus additional incentive payments and benefits (like free food when working and an additional day off for their birthday after one year’s service). 70% of our team have a basic hourly rate materially above the Living Wage rate and many more earn more when the monthly incentive payment is taken into account.

Jersey Living Wage Campaign

The Jersey Living Wage Campaign Team has supported our approach and said  “We are delighted to have accredited JPRestaurants as a Living Wage employer, giving public recognition to JPRestaurants for implementing a payment and incentive system that treats their staff with respect and dignity. Paying the Living Wage gives employees certainty of income, with personal financial planning. JPRestaurants have shown that this is possible and we hope that this will inspire other employers in the hospitality industry to do the same.”