of those statements which grates on a fair number of people. Whatever the automatically charged tip is, it is seldom a convenience to the person paying.

It is, however, probably a convenience to the owner of the premises who put it on the bill since it conveniences employers by allowing them to keep their wage bills low and to pass on the cost of their employees to customers by asking customers to contribute tips which, in fact, are wages and not gratuities. The 15 percent added was agreed to by hotels after a long session of tough wage negotiations and appears to us to have been added in hotels as extra, or at least guaranteed, money in lieu of agreeing to higher wages. The custom spread quickly from there to restaurants.

Ever since it was added to bills, the automatic, fixed gratuity has been something of a thorn for hotel and restaurant customers in Bermuda and it has become an open sore now that difficult times are upon us and we are becoming aware of our own prices and conscious of visitor objections to our high prices. There are some people who simply object that the addition of 15 percent is not a convenience. It is seen as decreasing service because it takes away the incentive to work for a tip. It is also seen as taking away from the customer the decision on whether or not to reward for service. There are also some customers who see it as an offensive imposition.

The problem, as we see it, arises because an automatic 15 percent is not seen by the people receiving it as a tip. Gratuity it may be, but since it is automatically added to a bill, it is not a reward in the traditional sense for service given. Therefore it is not unusual for those rendering service to expect a tip on top of the automatic gratuity. That is where the system becomes a real problem. Customers see the implication that a tip is expected on top of the gratuity as an excessive imposition. Many customers do tip extra hand-tips but a good many do not like it, nor should they.

There seems to us to be almost an acceptance, certainly an implication, that the automatic gratuity is a surcharge for the house and that something else is needed for the server or there is no tip. That creates problems especially for customers who are not accustomed to automatic gratuities in the first place.

There are those, just like Grotto Bay Hotel, who would like to remove the added gratuity. We do not think that it would be sensible, or even possible, in an overall Bermuda context to remove something which people are accustomed to. Some smaller properties may be able to do it successfully and some establishments may have employees who prefer not to have automatic gratuities, thinking that they can work and get more than 15 percent.

A sensible solution might be to retain the automatic 15 percent since Bermuda already has it in place but to make clear to customers that nothing extra is necessary or expected.