Japanese restaurant in New York scraps tipping

Sushi Yasuda, one of the city's most acclaimed Japanese restaurants, recently decided to stop accepting gratuity. A note on the bottom of each receipt explains: "Following the custom in Japan, Sushi Yasuda's service staff are fully compensated by their salary. Therefore gratuities are not accepted. Thank you."

Tips were not going to staff at Sushi Yasuda in the first place. Employees instead received higher salaries and benefits, while the restaurant took the tips. The restaurant will make up for the lost tips by raising the food prices by about 15 per cent.

"The reason we did it that way was because in Japan, that's how it's done," Scott Rosenberg, one of the restaurant's owners, said. "We thought, 'How great would it be when you go to a restaurant not to have to think about the tip?'"

Although tipping is not mandatory in the US, it is expected in some capacity for most services. Typically restaurants will expect tips of between 15 per cent to 25 per cent. Restaurants in Britain will usually add a service charge of 10-12.5 per cent.