Lawmakers want to crack down on “junk fees,” but restaurants are trying to stay out of the fight.
Surcharges or fees covering everything from credit card processing to gratuities to “inflation” have become more popular on restaurant checks in recent years.
Last year, 15% of restaurant owners added surcharges or fees to checks because of higher costs, according to the National Restaurant Association. In the second quarter, 3.7% of restaurant transactions processed by Square included a service fee, more than double the beginning of 2022, according to a recent report from the company.
Opponents of the practice say those fees and surcharges may surprise customers, hoodwinking them into paying more for their meals at a time when their wallets are already feeling thin. Fed-up diners compiled spreadsheets via Reddit of restaurants in Los Angeles, Chicago and D.C. charging hidden fees. Even the Onion took a swing at the practice, publishing a satirical story in May with the headline “Restaurant Check Includes 3% Surcharge To Provide Owner’s Sugar Baby With Birkin.”
Your options are tip well, or don’t eat out. It absolutely sucks that owners are making customers subsidize their employees’ wages, but by receiving the service you are expected to pay for the service. Tipping culture does suck. But it helps no one to tip poorly.
It helps me and erodes tipping culture as a whole. I’m curious how you think we’ll ever get past tipping culture without one of the first steps being “stop tipping for everything”.
And I absolutely do pay for the service. I pay the listed price of what I’m purchasing. That should be all that’s “expected”. You have been brainwashed into thinking that somehow shouldn’t include the cost of service. Absolutely insane.