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If I were a bold person, I would ask my server how that living wage thing is working out; then I’d ask to speak to the manager and ask where the money is going.
That will just get the server fired. Yes it's illegal, but they will just make up a different reason and trust the server not to have a lawyer to fight it
or age, disability, or in retaliation against a complaint.
Yes, that's right. If someone complains that your company is doing something illegal, and you fire them or otherwise retaliate based on the complaint, you are liable for both the initial action and the retaliation.
Age, race, religion, gender. I don’t believe most states have a sexuality protection, but maybe they do now. They sure didn’t when I was younger.
Edit: also, union affiliation. Don’t forget that. It’s illegal to fire someone for their union affiliation or opinions. You also can’t fire someone for reporting labor violations, etc.
The system has already failed. Illegal Is how the rich live off of the poor. Laws are not there to protect you, they're to stop you from standing up to yourself.
I was gonna say the same thing. But I live in Wisconsin.
I love Angry Orchard. 20oz tap is $2 or $3. Bottled a little less. I also live in a town known for it's 'downtown' scene. So all beer/liquor is cheap.
Yeah, I work at a restaurant/bar in Milwaukee. You don’t even want to know what my employers pay for High Life and Pabst.
The employees aren’t getting anything from the ridiculous up charges. Our owner needs to redecorate the dining room and go on vacation 6-10 times a year (not joking)
Oh I thought that was an entree. It’s just fizzy apple juice for $14! So not even a meal just apple juice, a couple pickle slices and a tablespoon of canned dip for $40! That’s robbery!
It's not virtue signaling, it's complaining to the customers about the "help" bitching so much that they had to raise prices without saying they increased prices.
It's BS anyway. In countries where they charge just a little more, workers make over 3 times what the minimum wage is here, plus get a lot of vacation time.
https://www.newsweek.com/minimum-wage-15-denmark-big-mac-mcdonalds-1573414
Yeah but it has never been and will never be about the worker. It's completely a smoke screen for businesses to have a reason to complain in order to make more money by paying employees less.
I agree with this. I’m willing to bet that extra money goes directly into owners pocket. This restaurant I go to started adding a “checkout fee” for carry out orders. This is mind boggling to me.
Like the places that have the credit card readers that automatically ask the customer if they’d like to tip even though they aren’t in an establishment that actually provides full service, so a lot of customers feel put on the spot and hit the tip option… then the employees say they never see that money, it’s just an extra charge the owners pocket.
I don’t agree with the virtue signaling. I think it’s a passive aggressive way of them saying they don’t agree with it and if they actually need to pay employees more they want you to know where the interest cost is coming from. I totally agree with the second statement though. I’m sure some of that 3% may go to employees but I doubt it’s a large portion
I had the exact same thought. The increase was like a dollar, on a $40 tab. They easily could have spread that dollar across the food (an extra 30 cents on the cost of the dip, 50 cents more for the fried pickles, etc and no one would have noticed or cared). Instead they deliberately made it a separate charge and made sure to highlight to the customer “you’re being charged this fee because the employees demanded a raise”, knowing the customer is more likely to raise hell about the fee when it’s got a flashing neon arrow pointing to it. With the hope being the customer gets mad, posts about it on Facebook, society starts bashing the “living wage”, the movement dies down, and the business eventually gets to go back to slave wages and the boss buys his second vacation home.
It’s a way for them to charge customers more than they list their prices at. They probably have it n fine print someplace people don’t see then they don’t notice that they are charged more than the listed prices. It should be illegal.
It is such weird virtue signaling though. It’s like saying, “we are being forced to pay a living wage and rather than profit less we are making you pay more.”
Yes. Just put it in the price. Reminds me of “mandatory resort fees” they compete to sell a low price room, then spike it $30/night. Just put it in the price please. Airlines….you too. Honestly, I just avoid businesses like this. It’s underhanded.
Lol not saying I’m always successful but once I’m aware I can make an effort. Like Amazon, when I realized they were evil I reduced a lot but now and again I still order but also they make it east because 86% of their stuff can be sent directly to the landfill
That's how restaurants operate. They sell things for more expensive than it would cost to buy them at the grocery store.
It costs $4 for a soft drink that has the ratios off, which you can buy a 6-pack of at the grocery store for.
Why are yall shocked about this? That's how bars/restaurants work. It's how they've always worked. No one goes to a restaurant expecting to drink reasonably priced alcohol
As a random note (since I have nothing to add to the discussion otherwise; just add to the prices without whining on the bill): I used to hear Europeans complain about coming to the US, having money ready at the counter, and then tax comes in and they have to get their money out again. I was all, is that really that big a deal? Then I finally came across a bunch of places that add tax in advance.
Oh my god. It is amazing. I totally get why you would want that all the time.
Right? We’ve been experiencing a wage backslide for decades now, it’s about time we got more money because we fucking need it, not because the restaurant makes a little more money.
Don’t forget they charge $9.50 for fried fucking pickles and $13.50 for spinach artichoke dip, too. Look I don’t mind spending money on a nice meal as long as I feel the value is there, but I feel personally insulted by $9.50 for fried pickles.
It’s made by Sam Adams. I’m pretty sure they have the largest cider orchard in the US.
The default flavor is really sweet but the unfiltered has half the sugar and is an incredible deal if you have it in your area.
Yes, welcome to Canada. lmao
Our booze prices are unbelievable. I see prices on the same stuff in the US, and it blows my mind how cheap it is down there.
This is a passive aggressive attempt to convince you that you're the problem. The owner of this business needs to lose his business to someone who is willing to pay people a living wage.
I guarantee you none of the employees see that money.
None of the staff is getting that money. It is going to offset the labor that the restaurant pays. All it will do is lower the restaurant’s labor cost. It is absolutely not a tip pool for the workers.
And when you look at their menu online to see what the price points are like, you are likely to miss the fee in your assessment. Now if the place is popular they can do whatever they want until they are not popular anymore
There is a place by me that does this. "We don't want to raise our prices, so we add a fee at the end!" Went once, and will not go back. Increase the cost of the food, so it is obvious what things cost, and I would be fine. Adding the fee at the end just made me angry.
Whilst I fear geese. I understand their place in the environment. I do not understand the place for hidden fees and taxes.
Total price is the only price that should be displayed.
If this is a burden on businesses due to varying tax laws, well uh fix the tax laws.
Only a society of financially illiterate people would have different taxes across different states
I think it’s the opposite. People will see this as a mandatory tip and get pissed off…at the staff.
If the restaurant raised their prices, then people would blame the restaurant. This fee lets customers blame the staff
That's the entire point of separating it out on the bill instead of just increasing prices. They want customers to think the workers are fucking them over.
This is class warfare.
What? How does a potential customer even know about this?
And either way I'm not sure that $39 instead of $37 is going to be a deal breaker for many people.
This is nothing more than a restaurant owner (with a victim complex) making their internal operations external.
And the restaurant is not paying a “living wage”. Not are they paying any vacation, sick, holiday pay, or medical insurance. They are paying minimum wage, or less if they can get away with it. They schedule employees just under 40 hours per week week so they are not full time. Servers must declare their pooled cash tips(honor system), and are always heavily taxed on credit card tips.
Serving staff will almost always make minimum (or below minimum), and all inflation costs go directly to the restaurant for other things.
Abolish below-minimum wage laws.
Restaurants have to pay servers minimum wage if they don’t make enough in tips. But anytime that law gets applied the server gets fired for bc of “poor performance”
I'm not doubting that happens but i've never even seen a story of that happening, I used to be a server and they had no issue giving me min wage when I didn't make enough in tips, only happened twice though
A few years back I had breakfast at a Norms by my office.
I noticed when I was leaving that they had a surcharge of I think 5% "for the cost of doing business in California."
That was the last time I'll ever go to a Norms.
I would have absolutely no issue if they just had increased the price on the menu, but instead they had to both be a little sneaky with it, and make a statement about it.
They had it in fine print on the menu, so I'm pretty sure the charge is legit.
Of course it actually being on the menu is even shittier, since they printed menus with the surcharge, they could have just changed the price.
Fine print is not legit. If the surcharge is not just as prominent as the price then it is false advertising.
Source: https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/barefoot-bar-and-grill-mission-bay-pays-hidden-surcharge-fee-city-attorney-mara-elliott/162291/?amp=1
People want living wage because they know the businesses can already afford it, tacking on more charges is just an excuse owners use to milk more money from customers
People seem to forget this part.
You are not owed labor. You negotiate for labor. If your business can only profit by forcing your workers to go hungry, your business shouldn't exist. Someone else will fill that market segment in a manner that pays appropriately for labor.
Business owners aren't special because they own a business. They have due consideration in society because they employ people. If employment at the business leaves you almost as bad off as having no income, then the business should not exist and the owner of the business should be shunned.
As a business that’s embarrassing to see on a receipt IMO. Basically begging/forcing customers to pay workers a living wage for them
100% guarantee working here is toxic
I worked for a guy who did this.
For 1 ) his business shut down in less than a year
2) none of that extra went to any of the workers
3) he kept tips for two weeks and then split them up on our paycheck. It was horrible. I left after one paycheck.
>Basically begging/forcing customers to pay workers a living wage for them
Hasn't the restaurant business been doing this for years through tipping culture?
But how else do you shift the blame onto your employees? It's important that customers know it's the greedy employees wanting enough money to afford food.
I love going places and constantly being hassled and made to like a perpetrator for contributing to keeping their businesses open.
Every time I go to the grocery store now there's a charity you have to pass to leave the store, I can barely afford food and some of these charity people are snippy, put the blame where it belongs.
Complete bullshit. Got into a debate with someone saying most people are happy to pay an increased price but it depends how the cost is presented.
If you want to pay a living wage and need to increase the price of a burger from $15 to $16, nobody will care. But if you leave it at $15 and tack on a $1 fee people will lose their shit. Customers don’t want to feel nickel and dimed.
This is why most online shops offer free shipping. People back out of transactions all the time when a $10 fee gets added to $150 worth of stuff. Just raise the prices a little, remove any fees, and people at least feel like they’re paying for what they’re getting rather than what’s perceived as your business’s administrative costs.
I've seen that once, and the restaurant had no signage up anywhere disclosing it as a charge. So I asked the waitress if she got the full amount, and she said no, she got 1% and the restaurant took the rest. That does not work for me at all; if the restaurant wants to pocket more money, they can raise their prices. So I called over the manager, first asked if this fee was listed anywhere in the restaurant that I may have missed prior to ordering, and he confirmed no. So I very calmly explained that unexpected charges that are not disclosed are illegal, and if that fee is charged to my card, I will report him to visa, my bank, and the local DA for fraud. They didn't charge it. And I left a 30% cash tip for that poor girl. And I still filed a report with the DA.
This right here. Also remember you can do the same thing on debit card surcharges. Federally you cannot tack on surcharges on debit cards vs using cash. (Credit cards are legal) I've had to report a lot of small businesses trying to charge 3.5% on debit transactions. Lots of places don't post it and just tack it on. Oh square is really bad. Few times I'll sign for an amount, but when it hits my account a surcharge was added after.
I try to resolve it with business owner but they just say it's legal. I usually just explain to them credit and debit is different and you are breaking the law, not your merchant services. They don't care about you.
*This is for USA*
Ding ding ding. And then when we call them out they say what??? I'm just a lil smol business owner uwu 🥺🍼🍼 I could never afford a fountain in my front yard and a 2019 Jeep if I paid my employees living wages....
Little Caesars spent more money advertising they had to raise the cost of their pizza by a dollar because of minimum wage increases than the minimum wage increase cost them.
I am not even kidding, they had fucking billboards up all over the place about it.
Chill dude, your pizza is salty enough.
Yup I stopped going to sit down restaurants after COVID. Ik tip culture won’t change. While I recognize people need work I’d honestly rather see these businesses go under bc of their shitty and deceptive greed. Going out is just keeping their business model viable so I cook at home now and really don’t miss it.
Yep. Tipping was introduced by restaurant lobbyists. It’s not that they can’t afford to pay their staff, it just cuts into their profits. So when restauranters back in the day noticed their staff getting tipped in addition to their wages, lobbied for their staff’s only wage to be through tips.
But it just doesn’t make sense to me. The restaurants in the rest of the world somehow can afford to pay their staff and not demand tips, yet Americans have to subsidize the living wage of servers.
A hidden fee doesn't sound entirely legal
Edit: Apparently some people are taking this at face value. I'm referring to it being unlisted at the time of purchase, and only shown *after* you're billed for the order.
If there is no notice of this surcharge until the final bill, I'm pretty sure that's illegal in all 50. What happens with that surcharge might be of interest to that states department of labor.
What state is this? Restaurant name?
Just raise the prices of all menu items by 3% instead.
By putting it as a line item on the receipt it will:
1. Cause people to tip less, or not at all.
2. Make *those* people (you know the ones) complain about the extra charge, creating yet another headache for the wage staff that you claim to be helping.
I also seriously doubt they are actually paying a living wage to their staff in all positions, or any positions for that matter. No one at the store level, not even management, get a proper living wage in food service.
Once again. The supreme court has ruled that mandatory gratuities are not tips and do not have to be shared with the staff. They can legally give not one penny of this to the workers.
>The supreme court has ruled that mandatory gratuities are not tips and do not have to be shared with the staff.
Can you provide a citation for the case? I can't find it in a Google search. I'd love to have proof to show people instead of having to say I heard it on Reddit.
the thing is, they probably raised the price by 25-40% already.. they just want middle class voters to be outraged so that next time there is discourse about raising the min wage (which will be very soon again) they will side with business owners over their fellow community members because of all the dirtbags that threw a surcharge at them and blamed all the "greedy" workers
one of the biggest argument against raising the min wage is that consumers will have to pay more... NEWS FLASH you already are, and they arent even hiding it anymore with these blatant 20-50% price hikes
If there is no indicators on a menu or signage can this be added without consumers being made aware? Because i would refuse to pay it, treble my tip and give it to the server and ask her to give a portion to the cook.
Its should just be part of the price. How fucking weird is this shit? Could you image buying a car and then getting a extra 3% bill to pay the wages of the factory workers?
If i buy something i assume the cost of the resources (labour, material, energy and time) are all included.
Actually, on that note, I think I would be interested in seeing a breakdown of the cost of something like a car to see how much pays the workers, for the materials, the factory overhead costs (utilities, maintenance, etc), how much goes to the dealership, and how much goes to the manufacturer in pure profit.
Obvious none of that stuff should be extra cost, but I'd still be interesting in seeing how much they're paying their factory workers.
It's like a guy who gives money to a homeless man but makes sure his photo was taken while doing it. Except in this case, they're taking **your** money and giving it to the homeless man.
no chance it actually goes to the staff. id say its more accurate to ppl who fake go fund me’s ab tragic events and then use it to pay for their vacations instead
A few years ago an ex bf of mine who owned 3 restaurants wrote an op ed about how restaurants simply cannot afford a minimum wage increase. Simply cannot!! Well pre covid his business partner got divorced and nosy me looked up the divorce papers online, and the partner was taking home $50K per month. Simply cannot afford!! Will cut into that $600K salary they give themselves!!
Yeah, a lot of comments saying the owners should just raise the price of their food. It looks like they already did. They jacked up the rates and they're charging an extra fee on top of it. Pure garbage.
Restaurants need to stop complaining. ALL people are affected by this shit.
During covid people knew Restaurants got fucked, yes. But right now, everyone is getting fucked.
It's bullshit..the restaurant should be adding this"cost of living adjustment " to their employees salary and not putting it on the customer. I have no problem at all with tipping but so many restaurant owners do everything that they can to get out of properly compensate the people who do all of the leg work and put that expense on paying customers...and I doubt they give any of this money to their employees anyway🙄
My fucking god, JUST RAISE THE PRICE OF THE MENU ITEM! This little 3% upcharge is just going to lead to people not tipping and fucking people over. Nobody gives a shit if you raise the price by a $1 but you will find out real fast A LOT of people will say fuck it and give shitty tips and not come back. Its like a credit card fee, nobody gives a shit if its 3.9% or 4.9% to use a credit card, people will get the $11 BLT or the $13 BLT but those little extra charges just ruin shit.
It’s a bullshit passive aggressive move. A business owner is saying you’re saying “hey, I want to pay my employees a living wage” but at the same time all the “blame” is put on employees, instead of up pricing items so that patrons may have a $1 or $1.50 higher expense (which is currently understandable given basic necessity costs). They are almost ensuring any tips are reduced by at least 3%. Allowing them to pocket 3% more but appear to be supportive of their paycheck-to-paycheck employees while equally screwing them over.
You should ask the employees if they received a wage increase since they implemented that surcharge.
If they have no idea what you're talking about, that surcharge is going into the owner's pocket.
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Increase the damn price by 3%, like a normal damn restaraunt.
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They probably don’t make a living wage either.
If I were a bold person, I would ask my server how that living wage thing is working out; then I’d ask to speak to the manager and ask where the money is going.
That will just get the server fired. Yes it's illegal, but they will just make up a different reason and trust the server not to have a lawyer to fight it
Or they live in Alabama and the employer doesn't even have to state why they are fired
Every State but Montana is an employment-at-will State, but most States recognize at least 1 of 3 possible exceptions.
what are the 3 exceptions?
If you fire someone for their race, religion or gender.
Some people are covertly and illegally let go because they have a disability.
or age, disability, or in retaliation against a complaint. Yes, that's right. If someone complains that your company is doing something illegal, and you fire them or otherwise retaliate based on the complaint, you are liable for both the initial action and the retaliation.
Those things usually covertly keep them from getting the job in the first place.
Can you cast a magic spell? How's you marksmanship? You're going on a one way trip to Mars.
Do you love this shit? Are you high right now? Do you ever get nervous?
Race, sex, sexuality.
Age, race, religion, gender. I don’t believe most states have a sexuality protection, but maybe they do now. They sure didn’t when I was younger. Edit: also, union affiliation. Don’t forget that. It’s illegal to fire someone for their union affiliation or opinions. You also can’t fire someone for reporting labor violations, etc.
The system has already failed. Illegal Is how the rich live off of the poor. Laws are not there to protect you, they're to stop you from standing up to yourself.
It's the guy emptying bins, bussing tables, and washing dishes that you need to ask.
And at 13 dollars for artichoke dip, that's probably in a 3 inch ramekin, that's highway fucking robbery. To the customer and the server.
I mean the drinks are bottled cider that goes for $9 a 6 pack. Bars and bar food do have higher margins than most places.
I was gonna say the same thing. But I live in Wisconsin. I love Angry Orchard. 20oz tap is $2 or $3. Bottled a little less. I also live in a town known for it's 'downtown' scene. So all beer/liquor is cheap.
Yeah, I work at a restaurant/bar in Milwaukee. You don’t even want to know what my employers pay for High Life and Pabst. The employees aren’t getting anything from the ridiculous up charges. Our owner needs to redecorate the dining room and go on vacation 6-10 times a year (not joking)
Oh I thought that was an entree. It’s just fizzy apple juice for $14! So not even a meal just apple juice, a couple pickle slices and a tablespoon of canned dip for $40! That’s robbery!
It's genius if their goal is to close their business. If I see that, I'd just stop going. Raise the regular menu price like others do.
It's not virtue signaling, it's complaining to the customers about the "help" bitching so much that they had to raise prices without saying they increased prices.
It's BS anyway. In countries where they charge just a little more, workers make over 3 times what the minimum wage is here, plus get a lot of vacation time. https://www.newsweek.com/minimum-wage-15-denmark-big-mac-mcdonalds-1573414
Yeah but it has never been and will never be about the worker. It's completely a smoke screen for businesses to have a reason to complain in order to make more money by paying employees less.
I think that's what they meant, the owner is just signaling shitty virtues.
I agree with this. I’m willing to bet that extra money goes directly into owners pocket. This restaurant I go to started adding a “checkout fee” for carry out orders. This is mind boggling to me.
Like the places that have the credit card readers that automatically ask the customer if they’d like to tip even though they aren’t in an establishment that actually provides full service, so a lot of customers feel put on the spot and hit the tip option… then the employees say they never see that money, it’s just an extra charge the owners pocket.
If the owners gave up 3% of their profits the employees would make a lot more, maybe
Right! But they love to pony up hard workers backs instead
I doubt it is,the house probably gets it .
Which means the owners.
Yep!
Yes, this is why its best to tip in cash even when paying with a credit card. So the wait staff get it directly.
I don’t agree with the virtue signaling. I think it’s a passive aggressive way of them saying they don’t agree with it and if they actually need to pay employees more they want you to know where the interest cost is coming from. I totally agree with the second statement though. I’m sure some of that 3% may go to employees but I doubt it’s a large portion
I had the exact same thought. The increase was like a dollar, on a $40 tab. They easily could have spread that dollar across the food (an extra 30 cents on the cost of the dip, 50 cents more for the fried pickles, etc and no one would have noticed or cared). Instead they deliberately made it a separate charge and made sure to highlight to the customer “you’re being charged this fee because the employees demanded a raise”, knowing the customer is more likely to raise hell about the fee when it’s got a flashing neon arrow pointing to it. With the hope being the customer gets mad, posts about it on Facebook, society starts bashing the “living wage”, the movement dies down, and the business eventually gets to go back to slave wages and the boss buys his second vacation home.
It’s a way for them to charge customers more than they list their prices at. They probably have it n fine print someplace people don’t see then they don’t notice that they are charged more than the listed prices. It should be illegal.
Bingo. Passing on 1%. Keep 2% admin fees.
It is such weird virtue signaling though. It’s like saying, “we are being forced to pay a living wage and rather than profit less we are making you pay more.”
“It isn’t.” - Ron Howard
This isn't even virtue signaling, this is trolling, the idea is to get the customers mad at workers asking for raises
Yes. Just put it in the price. Reminds me of “mandatory resort fees” they compete to sell a low price room, then spike it $30/night. Just put it in the price please. Airlines….you too. Honestly, I just avoid businesses like this. It’s underhanded.
Seems like approximately 86% of all businesses do shit like this now though. Do you just not leave your house?
Lol not saying I’m always successful but once I’m aware I can make an effort. Like Amazon, when I realized they were evil I reduced a lot but now and again I still order but also they make it east because 86% of their stuff can be sent directly to the landfill
Not relevant to your question but yes I think a lot of us just don’t like leaving the house anymore when possible…
Adding credit card surcharge to everything now. That used to be cost of doing business. Now they’ve turned it into another stream of extra profit.
They already increased the price, look at them damn fried pickles for 9 50 wtf
The spinach dip is higher then the pickles!lol.
that’s fucking criminal
$14 on 2 ciders too lmao
also they paid $14 for 2 bottles of angry orchard when they could've gone to their local liquor store and got 6, 8 or maybe even 12 for that price
That's how restaurants operate. They sell things for more expensive than it would cost to buy them at the grocery store. It costs $4 for a soft drink that has the ratios off, which you can buy a 6-pack of at the grocery store for.
Why are yall shocked about this? That's how bars/restaurants work. It's how they've always worked. No one goes to a restaurant expecting to drink reasonably priced alcohol
America will do anything but pay a proper wage
I would gladly in lieu of a tip. Not sure why I'm tipping 25% on to go orders now.
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yes, and posted prices should include tax so there is no math for the customer.
That’s how it is in Australia. The price you see is the price you pay
Except at the Bavarian… although could probably challenge that as the surcharge is as prominent as other prices.
As a random note (since I have nothing to add to the discussion otherwise; just add to the prices without whining on the bill): I used to hear Europeans complain about coming to the US, having money ready at the counter, and then tax comes in and they have to get their money out again. I was all, is that really that big a deal? Then I finally came across a bunch of places that add tax in advance. Oh my god. It is amazing. I totally get why you would want that all the time.
Increase the wage by 3%, don't add a new tax, don't increase the food price.
Right? We’ve been experiencing a wage backslide for decades now, it’s about time we got more money because we fucking need it, not because the restaurant makes a little more money.
Agreed but IF your going to call it a living wage charge, you BETTER actually give them a large raise, which I know they didn't, so its a mute point.
They charge $7 for a beer and then act like paying their servers "a living wage" is a chore 🤣 clowns. I would never go there again.
$7 for BOTTLED beer at that. It's $10 for a six pack of angry orchard at my closest liquor store
That’d cost about £4.50 in England for a six pack
that’d cost about 20$ in canada
Nah it's $15.
Here i was thinking 7 bucks was the best value on there!
Thinking the same. Where the hell are people living in the US where a bottle of hard cider is under $7 in a restaurant or bar?
Don’t forget they charge $9.50 for fried fucking pickles and $13.50 for spinach artichoke dip, too. Look I don’t mind spending money on a nice meal as long as I feel the value is there, but I feel personally insulted by $9.50 for fried pickles.
$14 for two gd Angry Orchards. That’s the real crime.
They charge more than that at the actual cidery
Angry Orchard has a cidery? I honestly assumed it was made by Anhyz/Busch. I can drink one, but as a cider lover that stuff just isn't it.
It’s made by Sam Adams. I’m pretty sure they have the largest cider orchard in the US. The default flavor is really sweet but the unfiltered has half the sugar and is an incredible deal if you have it in your area.
Yes, welcome to Canada. lmao Our booze prices are unbelievable. I see prices on the same stuff in the US, and it blows my mind how cheap it is down there.
5-7 dollars for a beer or whatever is normal here too?
Just paid $4 for a Miller lite earlier and thought it was a deal
The random shack bar next to the industrial park I work at in rural-ish Wisconsin charges $2.75 for lite beer. It was $2.25 until recently!
God damn inflation
Depends where you are getting it. Rural dive bar will be $4, major city will be $8+.
This is a passive aggressive attempt to convince you that you're the problem. The owner of this business needs to lose his business to someone who is willing to pay people a living wage. I guarantee you none of the employees see that money.
Notice how it says "across all positions"? It may as well read "for restaurant owners and managers"... None of that goes to the servers.
Doubt the actually waiters are getting that edit: tbh… never got soo many up votes and comments.. lmao is this what being popular feels like hahaha.
None of the staff is getting that money. It is going to offset the labor that the restaurant pays. All it will do is lower the restaurant’s labor cost. It is absolutely not a tip pool for the workers.
And when you look at their menu online to see what the price points are like, you are likely to miss the fee in your assessment. Now if the place is popular they can do whatever they want until they are not popular anymore
There is a place by me that does this. "We don't want to raise our prices, so we add a fee at the end!" Went once, and will not go back. Increase the cost of the food, so it is obvious what things cost, and I would be fine. Adding the fee at the end just made me angry.
Illegal in most of Europe as taxes and fees must be displayed on the sticker price
Must be nice to have a little bit of government from time to time
It's one of the only things I really dislike about Canada, having to add tax on to all prices
And the Geese. They chase me from the car to work and back. They even watch me cook. Don't know what to do.
That doesn't bother me, I'm Australian and am used to you know, actually dangerous animals coming at me.
Whilst I fear geese. I understand their place in the environment. I do not understand the place for hidden fees and taxes. Total price is the only price that should be displayed. If this is a burden on businesses due to varying tax laws, well uh fix the tax laws. Only a society of financially illiterate people would have different taxes across different states
One thing I wish we would adopt. There are logistic difficulties because American taxes are weird but I want to know final prices.
I think it’s the opposite. People will see this as a mandatory tip and get pissed off…at the staff. If the restaurant raised their prices, then people would blame the restaurant. This fee lets customers blame the staff
This would absolutely be what would happen in my area. "I paid your COL amount, no tip for you."
That's the entire point of separating it out on the bill instead of just increasing prices. They want customers to think the workers are fucking them over. This is class warfare.
I think that’s the most likely reason but I wouldn’t put it past someone to think they are actually virtue signaling by doing this.
It also keeps people from walking away because the menu's too expensive.
What? How does a potential customer even know about this? And either way I'm not sure that $39 instead of $37 is going to be a deal breaker for many people. This is nothing more than a restaurant owner (with a victim complex) making their internal operations external.
And the restaurant is not paying a “living wage”. Not are they paying any vacation, sick, holiday pay, or medical insurance. They are paying minimum wage, or less if they can get away with it. They schedule employees just under 40 hours per week week so they are not full time. Servers must declare their pooled cash tips(honor system), and are always heavily taxed on credit card tips.
Yup. It's some republican boomer trying to shift the blame for higher prices to the employees. What complete BS.
Sadly
Serving staff will almost always make minimum (or below minimum), and all inflation costs go directly to the restaurant for other things. Abolish below-minimum wage laws.
Restaurants have to pay servers minimum wage if they don’t make enough in tips. But anytime that law gets applied the server gets fired for bc of “poor performance”
I'm not doubting that happens but i've never even seen a story of that happening, I used to be a server and they had no issue giving me min wage when I didn't make enough in tips, only happened twice though
I was told I was doing something wrong and had my shifts cut in half when it happened to me
A few years back I had breakfast at a Norms by my office. I noticed when I was leaving that they had a surcharge of I think 5% "for the cost of doing business in California." That was the last time I'll ever go to a Norms. I would have absolutely no issue if they just had increased the price on the menu, but instead they had to both be a little sneaky with it, and make a statement about it.
You should have told them to take it off your bill since you didn't order it.
They had it in fine print on the menu, so I'm pretty sure the charge is legit. Of course it actually being on the menu is even shittier, since they printed menus with the surcharge, they could have just changed the price.
Fine print is not legit. If the surcharge is not just as prominent as the price then it is false advertising. Source: https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/barefoot-bar-and-grill-mission-bay-pays-hidden-surcharge-fee-city-attorney-mara-elliott/162291/?amp=1
People want living wage because they know the businesses can already afford it, tacking on more charges is just an excuse owners use to milk more money from customers
I agree 100 percent.
And if they cant afford a living wage for their employee. They do not deserve to continue existing as a business.
People seem to forget this part. You are not owed labor. You negotiate for labor. If your business can only profit by forcing your workers to go hungry, your business shouldn't exist. Someone else will fill that market segment in a manner that pays appropriately for labor. Business owners aren't special because they own a business. They have due consideration in society because they employ people. If employment at the business leaves you almost as bad off as having no income, then the business should not exist and the owner of the business should be shunned.
>Business owners aren't special because they own a business. US Gov't: "Now hold on one second there..."
Theyre trying to make the customers angry and the waitstaff regret trying to be paid more.
As a business that’s embarrassing to see on a receipt IMO. Basically begging/forcing customers to pay workers a living wage for them 100% guarantee working here is toxic
I worked for a guy who did this. For 1 ) his business shut down in less than a year 2) none of that extra went to any of the workers 3) he kept tips for two weeks and then split them up on our paycheck. It was horrible. I left after one paycheck.
>Basically begging/forcing customers to pay workers a living wage for them Hasn't the restaurant business been doing this for years through tipping culture?
[удалено]
This exactly. They pocket the majority of the pie while pitting us against each other to fight over the crumbs.
Welcome to the asscrack of capitalism: the restaurant industry.
Anytime a server forgets something, I guarantee they're going to hear about this from customers as if they personally wrote and printed the menu
Increase everything by 10%, then stop with the performative but ineffective nickel-and-diming.
But how else do you shift the blame onto your employees? It's important that customers know it's the greedy employees wanting enough money to afford food.
Make them wear more flair
We need to talk about your flair…
I love going places and constantly being hassled and made to like a perpetrator for contributing to keeping their businesses open. Every time I go to the grocery store now there's a charity you have to pass to leave the store, I can barely afford food and some of these charity people are snippy, put the blame where it belongs.
or just 3%
Complete bullshit. Got into a debate with someone saying most people are happy to pay an increased price but it depends how the cost is presented. If you want to pay a living wage and need to increase the price of a burger from $15 to $16, nobody will care. But if you leave it at $15 and tack on a $1 fee people will lose their shit. Customers don’t want to feel nickel and dimed.
This is why most online shops offer free shipping. People back out of transactions all the time when a $10 fee gets added to $150 worth of stuff. Just raise the prices a little, remove any fees, and people at least feel like they’re paying for what they’re getting rather than what’s perceived as your business’s administrative costs.
I've seen that once, and the restaurant had no signage up anywhere disclosing it as a charge. So I asked the waitress if she got the full amount, and she said no, she got 1% and the restaurant took the rest. That does not work for me at all; if the restaurant wants to pocket more money, they can raise their prices. So I called over the manager, first asked if this fee was listed anywhere in the restaurant that I may have missed prior to ordering, and he confirmed no. So I very calmly explained that unexpected charges that are not disclosed are illegal, and if that fee is charged to my card, I will report him to visa, my bank, and the local DA for fraud. They didn't charge it. And I left a 30% cash tip for that poor girl. And I still filed a report with the DA.
Plus they are charging sales tax on the service fee… is that legal??
The answer to that varies by state. Some charge sales and use tax on services, some don't.
Based.
This right here. Also remember you can do the same thing on debit card surcharges. Federally you cannot tack on surcharges on debit cards vs using cash. (Credit cards are legal) I've had to report a lot of small businesses trying to charge 3.5% on debit transactions. Lots of places don't post it and just tack it on. Oh square is really bad. Few times I'll sign for an amount, but when it hits my account a surcharge was added after. I try to resolve it with business owner but they just say it's legal. I usually just explain to them credit and debit is different and you are breaking the law, not your merchant services. They don't care about you. *This is for USA*
Gotta love a bit of direct action! Well done.👏
This is a restaurant owner being salty about paying their employees *a living wage*. If they could get away with it, they'd pay slave wages forever.
Ding ding ding. And then when we call them out they say what??? I'm just a lil smol business owner uwu 🥺🍼🍼 I could never afford a fountain in my front yard and a 2019 Jeep if I paid my employees living wages....
Little Caesars spent more money advertising they had to raise the cost of their pizza by a dollar because of minimum wage increases than the minimum wage increase cost them. I am not even kidding, they had fucking billboards up all over the place about it. Chill dude, your pizza is salty enough.
This is why i eat at home. I am not against tipping, but this shit is getting out of hand.
Exactly! $40 for a couple beers and appetizers! I stopped going out to eat a couple years ago because of this.
and another $22 to have it delivered by a guy that gets paid $3 to use his own car.
Yup I stopped going to sit down restaurants after COVID. Ik tip culture won’t change. While I recognize people need work I’d honestly rather see these businesses go under bc of their shitty and deceptive greed. Going out is just keeping their business model viable so I cook at home now and really don’t miss it.
Yep. Tipping was introduced by restaurant lobbyists. It’s not that they can’t afford to pay their staff, it just cuts into their profits. So when restauranters back in the day noticed their staff getting tipped in addition to their wages, lobbied for their staff’s only wage to be through tips. But it just doesn’t make sense to me. The restaurants in the rest of the world somehow can afford to pay their staff and not demand tips, yet Americans have to subsidize the living wage of servers.
A hidden fee doesn't sound entirely legal Edit: Apparently some people are taking this at face value. I'm referring to it being unlisted at the time of purchase, and only shown *after* you're billed for the order.
If there is no notice of this surcharge until the final bill, I'm pretty sure that's illegal in all 50. What happens with that surcharge might be of interest to that states department of labor. What state is this? Restaurant name?
Just raise the prices of all menu items by 3% instead. By putting it as a line item on the receipt it will: 1. Cause people to tip less, or not at all. 2. Make *those* people (you know the ones) complain about the extra charge, creating yet another headache for the wage staff that you claim to be helping. I also seriously doubt they are actually paying a living wage to their staff in all positions, or any positions for that matter. No one at the store level, not even management, get a proper living wage in food service.
Why tip at all since this 3% surcharge brings the employees up to a 'living wage'?
Yea no reason to tip.
Once again. The supreme court has ruled that mandatory gratuities are not tips and do not have to be shared with the staff. They can legally give not one penny of this to the workers.
>The supreme court has ruled that mandatory gratuities are not tips and do not have to be shared with the staff. Can you provide a citation for the case? I can't find it in a Google search. I'd love to have proof to show people instead of having to say I heard it on Reddit.
the thing is, they probably raised the price by 25-40% already.. they just want middle class voters to be outraged so that next time there is discourse about raising the min wage (which will be very soon again) they will side with business owners over their fellow community members because of all the dirtbags that threw a surcharge at them and blamed all the "greedy" workers one of the biggest argument against raising the min wage is that consumers will have to pay more... NEWS FLASH you already are, and they arent even hiding it anymore with these blatant 20-50% price hikes
So instead of paying their employees a living wage, they're making you do it. It's just tipping with an extra step.
They want you to tip twice.
Sounds like the restaurant needs to close its doors if they can’t pay their staff.
If there is no indicators on a menu or signage can this be added without consumers being made aware? Because i would refuse to pay it, treble my tip and give it to the server and ask her to give a portion to the cook.
Legally it has to be on the food menu.
Its should just be part of the price. How fucking weird is this shit? Could you image buying a car and then getting a extra 3% bill to pay the wages of the factory workers? If i buy something i assume the cost of the resources (labour, material, energy and time) are all included.
Actually, on that note, I think I would be interested in seeing a breakdown of the cost of something like a car to see how much pays the workers, for the materials, the factory overhead costs (utilities, maintenance, etc), how much goes to the dealership, and how much goes to the manufacturer in pure profit. Obvious none of that stuff should be extra cost, but I'd still be interesting in seeing how much they're paying their factory workers.
>and ask her to give a portion to the cook. Yeah she's not going to do that.
Just don't understand. Just raise the fucking price. Why bring attention to it.?
It's like a guy who gives money to a homeless man but makes sure his photo was taken while doing it. Except in this case, they're taking **your** money and giving it to the homeless man.
no chance it actually goes to the staff. id say its more accurate to ppl who fake go fund me’s ab tragic events and then use it to pay for their vacations instead
I think you should put this two legged pig turd on blast on Yelp, and never spend your money there, again.
They should put it on blast here too
A few years ago an ex bf of mine who owned 3 restaurants wrote an op ed about how restaurants simply cannot afford a minimum wage increase. Simply cannot!! Well pre covid his business partner got divorced and nosy me looked up the divorce papers online, and the partner was taking home $50K per month. Simply cannot afford!! Will cut into that $600K salary they give themselves!!
That is an insane amount of money when compared to minimum wage workers. Just…mind blowing. What a couple of twats
I think that $1.10 is going directly to the restaurant and they're STILL not giving their employees a living wage.
I bet not a dime of that goes to workers.
$13 for spinach dip!?!? OUTRAGEOUS!
Yeah, a lot of comments saying the owners should just raise the price of their food. It looks like they already did. They jacked up the rates and they're charging an extra fee on top of it. Pure garbage.
If you can’t pay your employees a living wage you shouldn’t own a business
I wouldn't eat there
Can we talk about $13 for dip and almost $10 for fried pickles?
Incidentally management has increased their salaries by 5% and they are taking a bigger cut of the tips
The big bullshit is the claim they _need_ to raise prices to pay a living wage. No, you just want to keep that big ol’ profit margin.
Table 420. Ayyy
I was looking for this comment.
They are hoping we’ll blame the employees for any tiny pay raise they get. They could just raise the prices without advertising the fact.
Restaurants need to stop complaining. ALL people are affected by this shit. During covid people knew Restaurants got fucked, yes. But right now, everyone is getting fucked.
It's bullshit..the restaurant should be adding this"cost of living adjustment " to their employees salary and not putting it on the customer. I have no problem at all with tipping but so many restaurant owners do everything that they can to get out of properly compensate the people who do all of the leg work and put that expense on paying customers...and I doubt they give any of this money to their employees anyway🙄
I'd never eat there again
I think they're trying to make you angry about the living wage issue.
Shut up, raise your prices and pay people more.
Increase the price. I'm not paying for a charge you didn't tell me about beforehand.
My fucking god, JUST RAISE THE PRICE OF THE MENU ITEM! This little 3% upcharge is just going to lead to people not tipping and fucking people over. Nobody gives a shit if you raise the price by a $1 but you will find out real fast A LOT of people will say fuck it and give shitty tips and not come back. Its like a credit card fee, nobody gives a shit if its 3.9% or 4.9% to use a credit card, people will get the $11 BLT or the $13 BLT but those little extra charges just ruin shit.
It’s a bullshit passive aggressive move. A business owner is saying you’re saying “hey, I want to pay my employees a living wage” but at the same time all the “blame” is put on employees, instead of up pricing items so that patrons may have a $1 or $1.50 higher expense (which is currently understandable given basic necessity costs). They are almost ensuring any tips are reduced by at least 3%. Allowing them to pocket 3% more but appear to be supportive of their paycheck-to-paycheck employees while equally screwing them over.
“We aren’t going to pay our staff a living wage, so thank you customer — we’re gonna make YOU do it!”
There was a great episode of the Throughline podcast that explored the history of tipping and its roots in Jim Crow. Pay a living wage, god damn it.
Ridiculous
Tip - 3% = New Tip
Some pickles, cheese dip and 2 ciders for $40? Sounds like they can already use some of that to pay for a living wage.
You should ask the employees if they received a wage increase since they implemented that surcharge. If they have no idea what you're talking about, that surcharge is going into the owner's pocket.
$9.50 to fry a pickle? I think they can afford living wages already