R
Richard
Guest
Most visitors to the DR quickly become aware that in restaurants and bars, Dominican law has legislated that 10% service charge and 12% tax is added to their bills. This charge ?the percent? as it is known locally is usually itemized on your bill. For several years, at least in Sosua some establishments just buried it in the prices. On a recent visit it seems now that almost every place shows it to be added on. The service charge however is not entirely fair to your server or bartender who have hustled to give you great service and make your visit enjoyable. Why? The 10% goes into a pool and is divided up amongst servers, bartenders, cooks, chefs, cleaning staff depending on how many hours they have worked. Often even the owner often takes a slice. So if say your cuenta is 200 pesos and the waiter ends up getting 10% of the 10% because he worked 10% of the total hours worked by all the staff. His total works out to whopping 2 pesos. that is where the propina comes in. The propina is the extra few pesos you leave on the table when you are finished and it is divvied up among the staff working that shift. This way if the server has done a great job you can show your appreciation directly. At one time I felt that leaving 5 or 6 pesos was about right, however the more I have thought about it, if the service has been good I am more inclined to leave 10-20 pesos on a 200 peso bill. Note I wrote, if the service was good. If I?m being ignored or the servers are spending more time chatting with friends or other staff rather than paying attention to the patrons obviously my thoughts are very different. A few personal observations. (Generalizations of course). Men are better tippers than woman; Americans tip better than Europeans; Professionals (engineers, lawyers, accountants etc.) are lousy tippers; those in the service industry who rely on tips themselves are excellent tippers. Certainly tipping is discretionary however when one considers how dependent service personal in the DR are on tips to make a living and as a rule how hard Dominicans try to please, please do not forget the propina.