Danny Meyer To Remove Tipping At All Of His Restaurants

Danny Meyer is eliminating tipping at all of his Union Square Hospitality Group restaurants, the company announced on October 14.

Meyer is the restaurateur behind Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, and Shake Shack, among others. The first restaurant to rid tipping will be The Modern at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. By the end of next year, all of his restaurants will not accept tipping. Instead, they will be raising menu prices to offer employees more money in their salaries, rather than relying on tips.

"We've been talking internally with all the employees about this goal of how do you really improve or create more meaningful career and financial growth opportunities for the people who work at this company," Kate Lindquist, the director of public relations, told The New York Times. "As part of this conversation, it became increasingly clear that tipping is a major obstacle to doing that for a number of reasons."

We've reached out to Union Square Hospitality Group for comment and are waiting to hear back. As of now, these changes will not affect the Shake Shack chains around the nation.

Most recently, Top Chef judge and chef Tom Colicchio decided to abolish tipping at his flagship restaurant Craft during lunch service.