How Five Operators Balance Tipping and Service Charges for Equitable Pay

Before David Jackman opened Wildweed in Cincinnati, he knew the menu pricing needed to afford an equitable wage structure. “If I don’t give staff the ability to support themselves,” he says, “they’ll leave the industry or this city.” Jackman had come from Nashville, where he worked at top spots—Catbird Seat, Locust—that compensated staff not with tips, but via service charge. “We had staff retention,” he says. “...