Joe's Crab Shack: Don't Tip Our Waiters (POLL)

By ERIC KIEFER and JUSTIN HEINZE

The next time you eat at Joe’s Crab Shack, you might not need to worry about leaving a tip.

You’ll already be paying for it.

The national restaurant chain recently announced that patrons at selected stores are not expected to give a tip to their servers.

Instead, the company is raising the starting wage for its waiters to $14 per hour, although that amount may depend on the server’s past performance.

The raised wages will come from a full menu price increase of 12 to 15 percent, according to the chain’s parent company, Ignite Restaurant Group.

According to Ignite CEO Ray Blanchette, the switch to wages may reduce server turnover by making all shifts equally as desirable. In addition, Blanchette expects that the move will help to solve the problem of the “big table” with several patrons, as waiters currently hesitate to split a large party because it also means splitting the tip.

The restaurant began rolling out the “no tipping” experiment in August at select locations, but is now expanding their model to all of its 113 stores, Fox News reported.

However, none of the restaurant’s New York locations have adopted the “no tipping” policy as of date, the NY Daily News stated.

There is no timeline to roll out the change in the remainder of the chain’s locations, Blanchette told CNN.

Joe’s Crab Shack has Pennsylvania locations in Bryn Mawr and King of Prussia, and in the western part of the state in Robinson and Pittsburgh.

Will Joe’s Crab Shack’s planned “no tipping” policy work out for its employees? Take the Patch reader poll below and share the reason why you voted that way in the comments section.