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From A.M. Costa Rica

Tips remain outside salary
of food service workers


By the A.M. Costa Rica staff


Lawmakers decided not to include tips in the salaries of waiters and bartenders when they approved a technical bill about salaries Monday.

There had been a push to do so, and that would have meant that employers would have had to pay social charges, alguinaldo and severance pay on a salary that included tips.

Some lawmakers said they did not want to put an additional burden on the operators of small- and medium-size restaurants.

The law obligates a restaurant to add an amount equal to 10 percent of the price of the meal for service. This is the obligatory tip. Additional tip money is at the discretion of the diner.
For now at least, the tip money and any supplementary tips will be off the books as far as calculating the monthly charges employers must pay.

Eduardo Sánchez Sibaja of the Partido Unidad Social Cristiana called the legislative decision a great injustice. He wanted tips to be included.

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Hit them fast, Hit them hard and NEXT!
A good chica is like a good carpenter - No wood gets wasted!!!

I'm confused. There has always been a 10% service charge at the larger restaurants. Few if any smaller restaurants included that charges, either because they weren't required to or because they were flouting the law.

Are they saying that the law OBLIGATING a restaurant to add this charge is something NEW and that it was discretionary on their part before?

Or are they saying this law is now going to obligate ALL restaurants and THAT is something NEW for the smaller ones? In which case, good luck getting those smaller places to comply.

Or are they just saying this extra charge will no longer be included in calculating Aguinaldo (end-of-year/christmas bonus), severance pay, etc.?

It doesn't sound to me like this article is talking about anything different that will mean any changes for us.

The 10% service charge has been obligatory for ALL restaurants for a very long time. As is usual in CR what is written and what is enforced are, in many cases, completely different.

The service charge has NOT been used in calculating aguinaldo, CAJA payments, severance pay, etc. The law proposed, but not implemented, would have included the service charge in computing those payments.

The result is that there is no change to either existing law or most likely existing practice.

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine