Is the service fee considered a tip?

No, it isn't. You still have to tip.

I think it is usually not. You should ask. My restaurant has a 6% service fee and a 14% gratuity in the contract.

The catering is through the venue, we had to utilize their restaurant so all of our payments will be made for the meals etc prior to the actual reception. I know that you wouldn't tip a venue after already paying them to let you use the space, so I just didn't know since it is their restaurant and I guess you could say "all inclusive", if it would be necessary to tip or if that would be the equivalent of tipping the venue itself which doesn't make sense.

You're not tipping the venue, you're tipping the servers.

It is not at mine. I asked. But the owner emphasized that he pays his people very well and not to worry about a tip or that if we felt like I wanted to, the servers are usually thrilled with an extra $20 at the end of the night.

When people have catering at a venue they generally tip on top of the service fee. I asked about this when i looked into country club weddings. You are suppised to tip above the service fee.

@LindseyO that makes more sense, of course I'll want to tip the servers. I'll verify with the venue what is expected or if they allow tips because I've seen some 'all inclusive' places that don't allow it, glad I asked!

No. It's the pay for the servers. If you want to tip, you tip on top of that.

This is one of my top pet peeves, because it's sneaky.

I would specifically ask. I asked this exact question when we were looking at various vendors. I briefly worked as a catering waiter at a country club, the bill said "service" or something along those lines, so most people thought that was the tip and did not give us tips. But no, the manager of the country club took that money to pay our wages (which was only $9 per hour! It was in Pennsylvania, not MA where I live now, but still...). One caterer that we were considering said that gratuity was included but I bluntly asked, "How much do you pay your servers" because I wanted to make sure they were getting paid fairly. The caterer was decided on has a service charge but they were clear that this is not the gratuity and gave us a suggestion for how much to bring (in cash) to tip the staff at the wedding. It was all out of the open and seemed more than fair.

The time to ask this is before you sign. In NYS, a service fee MUST be paid to waitstaff. No way should you be tipping 20% on top of this.

Karen even if the service fee is paid to them, that's their base pay. You still tip.

I am perfectly fine if I am able to tip directly to the servers, because like @soontobeRTR said it may not go where I want it too if I tip to the venue itself. The service fee of 22% was included in our contract, it does not mention anything about gratuity on top of that. Again I am really glad that I thought about this and asked otherwise I would have probably wouldn't have tipped extra for the servers, looked like a jerk, only because I wouldn't have known.

Karen, that's wages. If you want to tip, you tip.

The best way to deal with this is to ask the venue very specifically what their terminology means.

If you figure out the numbers, I suspect you will see that the servers are getting WAY more than normal wage.

I agree ask BEFORE you sign. Once you sign, the venue has NO motivation to say other than tip, tip, tip.

Every venue is different - you need to confirm with them. Typically a service fee is not a tip, it is used to pay the salaries of the servers.

For tips, you can give a flat fee to each server, such as $20-$40 per server.

My paper work says a 20% gratuity is added - I assumed gratuity was tip. I'm definitely going to clarify now thanks for posting!

Definitely make sure to ask either way, I work as a part time banquet server and while they say that you should tip extra for the server's, the server's never see one cent of it.

@niknak yes, that's my main concern is that if we tip the management/venue the people who actually did the work won't see it, hence why I'd like to know if it's okay to give each server something in cash, that goes directly into THEIR pocket, as I know servers typically don't make a ton. My mom is a server part time so she knows how it is to have customers assume that service fee=tip, but their service fee for parties is small, like 6 or 7%, that's why I'll have to see for the 22%

@Karen, yes, 22% service charge seems like it MAY include gratuity because it's a lot higher than the 6% or 15% I've typically seen so I will specifically ask my contact if he can tell me how much their servers actually make per event so I know I'm not shortchanging them.

I would check your contract. Ours does onsite catering and there is a 23% service charge on top of tax. In our contract (also verified with our venue coordinator), of that 23%, 15% goes directly to the waitstaff and bartenders. I would double check to see where exactly the service charge applies.

Nope not included as tip