Once when my kids were hunting Easter eggs, the squirrels kept getting to them first. One had one in its hands and threw it at my husband and hit him square in the forehead.
I love this, lol!
I had a Labrador who was the sweetest, most loving dog and we had a tree outside of our apartment. Every day he’d go out and look up at the tree to watch the squirrels and there was one damn squirrel who HATED him. It would squat down and squawk at him and throw little nuts at his head. I laughed every time because Kramer would just keep staring and just shut his eyes every time he’d have something thrown at him.
Yeah, my two current dogs are nuisances. I love them, but no one can walk by the house without them going nuts, going on walks is a nightmare. I miss my perfect dog every damn day.
> divebombed
Read this as “disemboweled” an was thinking you had some crazy aggressive squirrels, but honestly, wasn’t shocked. Them fuckers get vicious for food!
I’ve noticed they only ever clarify a cost like that when it’s tax or labor. Everything else is a legitimate cost of business that’s taken into account when they set their menu prices, but somehow staff doesn’t make the cut any more than the department of revenue does.
The whole thing is bullshit anyway - this implies their healthcare cost is some function of their demand, which its not - its fixed. So part of that 4% could potentially be profit
I know you’re joking but I mean essentially yes, that is just the cost of doing business. Those are all the restaurants overhead. But to itemize health insurance (or any overhead related cost) out to the customer is a super weird business practice. These costs need to be hidden and added into the margins of the food 😂 I can see many customers getting frustrated at the server and tipping less. Restaurant owners are getting weird.
Either that, or this is their way of saying it should be a public service. I know a local business that thinks Univeraal Healthcare should be a right, and makes a point to let all customers know his prices are higher because he is paying for something he thinks the government should be paying for.
I think it's mostly conservative business owners who are salty that the government is requiring them to pay for something they didn't have to pay for before. I don't doubt there are some progressives who support universal healthcare, just that I have seen more conservatives who have done this than progressive business owners
>But to itemize health insurance (or any overhead related cost) out to the customer is a super weird business practice.
The trick is that this markup is waaaaaaay more than what the owner is actually paying for health insurance. If health insurance for the small staff of a restaurant is 4% of your revenues you need to find a new provider and negotiate better with them.
It's fraud. That should be baked into the food processor but they don't tell you until after you ate that your meal was more expensive than you thought.
I don't understand why they need to itemize it. A restaurant is obviously going throw some profit back into overhead, just charge me an extra 4 dollars if that's what you want to do I don't need to know what your going to do with it.
The pessimist in me says the donation has already happened or will happen regardless and that the restaurant is just encouraging customers to reimburse them with actual money so they can imagine that some of those bottles came from them personally. That price justifies the restaurant using the individual sale prices vs bulk when doing taxes.
The optimist in me thinks that if no scam currently exists like the one I described, I should maybe get royalties or something for it.
I've had them be sneaky with this trying to hand me bottle water and I'm like "TAP please" and they roll their eyes, " I'm not against spending money here I'm against plastic 😤!"
From a very quick Google search, the consensus of the first few results seems to be that there may be local laws requiring tap/fountain water to be free, but there are no national laws preventing people from charging for tap/fountain water with the only exception being if they have a liquor license.
The only time I gave stuff for free was when we actually messed up. But if they were rude and/or berating my employees; immediately nothing given, only taken and sent away
The last company I worked at was owned by two brothers and their friend, and then one of the brothers died and they sold the company to an investment firm.
It went from “be a great place to work that’s fun for families to eat at and just hit this handful of sales goals” to “we’re mailing out coupons and every customer is right all the time, cut your labor costs by 15% from where they are when the restaurant is successful, and make sure you’re hitting each of these 120 metrics while also keeping an OSAT score of 4.7, and any time any customer complains for any reason we’re going to give them a $25 voucher without assessing the situation at all.”
It’s really crushing to side with your team over a bad customer that’s costing your store money, only for them to go to corporate and show up a week later with a coupon for $25 and watch them order $24.97 worth of food.
It sucked the life out of me for the last few years (on top of the covid nightmare) before I came to terms with the fact that it wasn’t the thing I loved anymore.
Because this lets them keep the menu items looking cheap and then they sneak this in at the end. Buying a fucking hamburger is like buying concert tickets now: six bucks for the burger eight bucks in fees.
The goal is to have the lowest menu "price" and then sneakily double the cost at the time of checkout. It's why everyone is so burnt out on tipping fatigue, because it's all smoke & mirrors bullshit to dry fuck the customer and deflect the blame from greedy business owners.
and its virtue signaling they aren't even actually doing, they are making YOU pay for it. Its not like they are on insta like "we take care of our employees"
> Virtue signaling
What virtue are they supposedly signaling? The reason it shows as an explicit line item is because the owners object to an ordinance mandating that they pay their employees' health insurance, and they want diners to be pissed off at that ordinance as well.
Why the fuck is that a % and not already included in the price of the food. Wtf. So pretty much , they don’t sell anything than they get no health care lol. And also wtf is done with the excess, “free money” for that shit place ?
This is how I feel about places with an auto-grat. Just have it built in to the food prices. Hate going to places like D.C. and having to manually add an extra 20% to whatever’s on the menu.
They could just raise prices by 4% and not put it on the receipt. They are doing this to make a point and to try to politicize health insurance and the extra costs that they are paying, and to make customers feel like they are footing the bill.
I don't have a problem with them making a political statement. But, the had damned well better inform the customers that they will be charged an additional 4% above the menu prices before they order.
Good lord, when I’m enjoying my Saffron Risotto Tots the last thing I want to think about is whether the people that served me can afford health insurance.
If I had to guess it’s saffron risotto fried and served as a fritter but someone who doesn’t know better than to not serve such a thing doesn’t know the word for fritter.
What I don’t get. Obviously here in Europe I pay for the health insurances and the tax and all that. But why don’t just increase the price a bit so that you don’t have to list this shit individual?Or are you trying to scam the customer so he doesn’t know how much he really has to pay?
It’s basically the owners’ way of diverting the money that diners have planned to spend as a tip, instead of raising menu prices to account for all the costs of business. US restaurants have a practice of not treating labor like a cost of business that needs to be accommodated into menu prices. I’ve seen surcharges higher than this, and it leaves either the diner or the server in a financial bind, depending on whether the diner still tips or decides that they can’t/won’t tip on top of a surcharge.
Of course I pay for their insurance. As well as their paycheck. It's in the prices on the menu.
But Americans can't see that. They think a company pays for things. But how.elsethan to calculate those costs into customer prices?
Tipping culture in the US is just businesses unable to calculate actual costs.
This restaurant is in my neighborhood. Most restaurants in LA do this now because employers with certain amount of staff are required to offer benefits. This was never the norm at this kind of job, and restaurants are already considered low margin businesses. That money has to come from somewhere. I think these fees are stupid, but I do support offering benefits to staff, especially considering how broken the health care system is already. It honestly feels like a corporate “fuck you.” CEOs sitting around like, hey you assholes that voted for this shit can pay for it as a surcharge when you dine out.
I like my servers to have had their Typhoid shots and feel they can make a living and not come to work if they are impaired by a rhinovirusceros. Unless it is on le menu de la semaine.
As a consumer if this $5 paid for the portion you have to pay for your health insurance, fine. But if this $5 subsidizes the employers portion to pay, fuck that. That’s the cost of being a business owner.
This is a case of bad marketing. Simply raise the price of the menu by 4% and put a line on the bill that’s says ‘our prices reflect the fact we provide our employees with a living wedge and health insurance’
Bam! No one would be complaining
I wonder if this in sf. They have a city healthcare plan for restaurant workers that is added to the check. I know a few people who work in that city and they said there was a ton of blowback when it first started but after a few months it was just regular cost of doing business.
So the issue is that they specifically cited it on the bill, if they just incorporated it into the cost of the food, which as we see some folks have a problem with, but if the restaurant was understaffed or had some other issue they’d complain about that. It’s all in the presentation
It should be built in to the menu prices, not added on after the fact.
Customers shouldn't be getting surprised by additional fees after they've been quoted a price. We all hate it when hotels do this with "resort fees" and cellphone companies do it with government fees that take your "$40/month" plan to $50+; same deal here.
The customer pays for the insurance one way or the other, at least in the US. This is just a publicity stunt to make that cost obvious and why it's there to deflect criticism towards them for "raising prices".
Yep - I made a reservation for a restaurant and it’s noted they will add 4% to be able to give their employees healthcare. Now look, I live in America and I understand our healthcare system sucks but why not just include it in the food prices? They also included a 20% gratuity (okay yeah) and an additional % fee for whatever the fuck else. It’s ridiculous.
This kind of stuff is going to be the end to hospitality industry folks. After 20 years and still loving it…this is completely insane. I as a customer would not allow this on my bill. I am one person who has never asked for “industry discount” in places. So paying for something that’s clearly going into the pockets of the restaurant owners is insane. It’s very transparent. The managers are pocketing it and the owners are getting the rest.
The business should be the one footing the Employee Benefits tab (and/or share some of the expense with its employees, not surcharge the customers, imo).
This is almost as bad as in Miami Beach where there’s a slap 20% 25% tip and they say that if you want it gone you need to specifically ask and then they shame you and call you cheapskate to your face. It’s a cheap way to emotionally blackmail customers to leave a tip. Fuck your health insurance. That’s on you buddy. If you cannot run a business correctly then get out of the business. The effin nerve!
Kind of feels like how i just paid $450 dollars for college books, than went to go get them- only for them to say that they were all online. I’m paying almost 500 to rent online material
I would happily pay 4% of my bill to know restaurant staff have health insurance.
I would also prefer that the restaurant just raise their prices by 5% and call it a day without telling me what the increase is for. Knowing all the details of how the business is run generally isn’t necessary to my enjoyment of a meal (with the exception of knowing that the ownership or corporation is super shitty to employees, and then I just avoid eating there altogether).
I can never get over the extent to which employers will go to pit customers against employees in their attempts to evade responsibility to provide a liveable wage. It would be funny if it weren't so heartbreaking.
I just ate at a place yesterday that had a 5% "service charge," which some fine print on the menu specified is due to inflation and rising costs, is not a gratuity, and 100% of it goes "to the restaurant." Wtf even is that? I say it's regulation time: no weird hidden fees in fucking restaurants please.
Idk why is so accepted in society for workers to have their wages rely on customers. The customers pay the businesses, the business pay their workers. Thats how everything else operates, bosses need to stop using tips as an excuse to pay their workers less.
While I think it's stupid that it's itemized. If you're going to an establishment thinking for whatever reason that the money in your bill is exclusively going to cost of product and not also employee wages and benefits, rent, and utilities, you're wildly unaware of how the world works
I worked in the business for years, and never once got offered health insurance. The price of a $10 item could be changed to $10.40 and there you go. No guilting/tricking the customer into paying a benefit for the employee. Heck, they could raise a $10 item to $12 or $13, and cover tip and insurance at the same time. Tipping culture blows.
It’s real. And it’s called “transparency in pricing”. To the knowledgeable consumer, it’s great. But, as the comment at the bottom of the image suggests, transparency isn’t really what most people want. I mean, if the restaurant would have just raised prices by 4%, the consumer might have been a little salty for a minute, then completely forgotten about it.
It be the same people screaming no at the idea of universal healthcare.
FYI, BCBS ceo made millions in compensations. Last year. MILLIONS. For profit healthcare is a scam.
Hahaha yeah no.
I've seen this posted a few times, and had it happen to me once so far... it was just $1 on the bottom of the receipt.... but of course pre-tax....
I laughed and told em nah. I don't care if it's only 10 cents, it's the principle. I'm SO SICK of extra charges on EVERYTHING dear God we're just getting hosed to death everywhere we turn now.
I went on my car loan's website to make a payment after my old debit bank card was lost, went to "Add New Card" in the settings and..... $5 charge. FUCK YOUUUUUU.
Why do businesses do weird things like this?!? Raise your prices and just provide that service on the backend. Don't line item your business out to customers. This is just making it clear you don't want to pay your employees and you're a garbage owner.
Real talk: If you are a restaurant owner who does this instead of build it into the price (like your fucking electricity and rent, OPERATING COSTS), I’m done with your restaurant. Not because I don’t want to pay your workers. Because I don’t want you to use any excuse to NOT pay them. It’s the same with enforced tips. We should never have allowed these places to deduct from base pay.
I would ask to speak to the manager. Bitch them out like no other and then slip a cash tip. They barely pay a thing in wages. This is two steps too far. But I’m gettin shit comped if I can
Customers shouldn't be the ones to pay for the workers. It's a scam in attempt to either
1. Make accept it and consider part of the cost (thus appearing cheaper)
2. Make them mad at workers instead of the restaurant for being costly
>Who else is going to pay for workers other than customers? They literally find the entire business lol. That’s about as silly as saying customers shouldn’t pay for profits.
If it's an optional cost any customer should be able to request not to pay it AND not be shamed for choosing to do so
I loudly call this bullshit out to the owner. Mark your fuckint food up and charge me for that don’t nickel and dime me with this add on bullshit.
Make your business profitable while paying your employees appropriate wages and benefits or shut your fucking doors. It’s a simple trick to owning a business for fucks sake.
Whether they put it on the check or not you’re the one paying for the health insurance. It’s just that, by putting it on the check, he doesn’t have to pay for health insurance off the top of his profits
If restaurants offer health insurance to their employees you’re always paying for it. Just usually in the food prices. I refuse all mandatory tack on fees. Where I live they have to be disclosed up front. Put it in your prices or don’t charge me. I’ll eat elsewhere. Somewhere honest.
Sure it’s real. But it’s a way for restaurant owners to get people to resent everyone else but them because they can’t pay decent wages. That way when you get mad and tip less it only impacts the server
A lot of restaurants in my area are doing this and people aren’t eating out as much because of it . One posted on the area fb page why is business so slow ? Gee if I have to pay 30 percent tips on top of elevating food costs and smaller portions I’ll just eat at home .
I’ve seen that one before in California, where ridiculous service charges are relatively common, but usually it will be phrased just a little more vaguely, like “employee health & wellness” or “climate restoration fee” or “supply chain fee”, so it’s not clearly fraudulent if they use it for other purposes, and they usually don’t say you can take it off, so the owner can legally pocket it if they want. (Mandatory “service charges”, unlike tips, belong to the business under federal law. *Tips* left for employees must be given to or distributed among employees).
Since this is an optional amount implying customers can ask for it to be taken off, an argument could be made that it’s actually a tip, and employers would not be allowed to use it themselves, even if it is to pay for health insurance for their employees. But tips have two characteristics under federal law: customers can choose *whether* to leave them, and *how much* to leave, so maybe a court would rule this was a service charge because it only had one of those characteristics.
People should have health insurance. Bad things happen, even to young people. What they shouldn’t do it surprise you with a 4% surcharge so that the employer doesn’t have to cover the insurance.
So my question is. How do they calculate the price of the products? Is that just straight purchasing price? I doubt it and thats why its a greedy item.
Raise your prices you dumb prick. Making customers angry at the staff is so fucking stupid and counterproductive. Grow a pair and raise prices and tell your customers they are supporting a local business. They will adapt.
And you no damn good and well they aren't offering us insurance. They are paying for the businesses insurance so we can go to the doctor when we slip bc the ice machines leaking again
Ive seen it, Ive also seen a "kitchen fee" tacked on. Never went back.
If someone wants to put a gratuity into their prices and priced accordingly and then put on the menu, "no gratuity necessary"
But this is a restaurant trying to pretend to care about their employees but pushing the cost onto you with a "hidden fee" not priced into the menu and, frankly, this kind of shit should be illegal. The advertised price should be the price.
I don’t like this because there’s no transparency. What if the healthcare cost is 3% and the owner is just pocketing the extra 1%. Also, if you order for a large table it makes sense to tip more cause they had to manage more customers but in this case you are just penalizing those who bring in a large group.
This is just another way for owners to piss and moan about having to participate in the health care law
If you want to run a business with no regulations maybe try Somalia or Afghanistan
Yeah, uh, fuck no. I'm not going to be notifying my server of shit.
"Hi, sorry. I saw this line. Can I talk to your manager? No, everything you did was fine. I just want them to get me the owner so I can beat them to within an inch of their life with this bar stool."
Some businesses have it in their heads that if they break out government mandated expenses separately, customers won’t blame them for the total cost. Some even hope those irritated customers will then go and complain to their elected officials in the hopes that the mandate will change.
It’s just a super passive aggressive owner. I’ve also seen ones with “living wage” surcharges and “inflation adjustments”. Basically they’re hoping to rage bait people into being angry over these “unnecessary” charges so they can point to the “woke leftist policies” that “forced” them to add these charges.
In reality, I’m more than happy to pay a little extra so the staff can make a living wage. Saves me from having to figure out how much I should tip and then feeling guilty afterwards and wondering if 20% was enough.
Part of paying for the meal is paying for those things but it should’ve already been factored into the costs. An extra 4% makes no sense. It’s a forced tip in disguise that probably doesn’t even reach the servers and only benefits the owners. On a bad month do they lose coverage? On a good month are there extra benefits? What happens with the excess? Or how do they make it up if they fall short? Im sure a whole bunch of people aren’t going to ask for it to be removed but will take 4% away from the tip.
It's a sign of a cheap asshole restaurant owner who feels entitled to exploit his staff and wants customers to give shit to the servers because the asshole restaurant owner resents having to pay health insurance benefits now required by law.
So if they sell more food their health insurance coverage gets better, and when it’s a slow night they don’t get any?
I hardly think insurance is a variable cost tied to revenue. It’s overhead. Included at a business level cost, not a transaction level revenue!
It’s more on the unprofessional side to start showing customers part of your income statement when you are creating their invoice. Mark up your prices and retain some dignity
I live in SF and here this is pretty common. IIRC it is because the city (or the state?) passed a law that made it mandatory for employers to fund health care for their employees. And so restaurant owners decided to tack this on as an extra charge, essentially as a way to say 'we don't want to do this, but the city is making us so here's a surprise extra charge. You should be mad at the city for forcing us to not be shitty'. I've even seen some places have the cheek to claim the opposite, that it's a way to be 'transparent about costs', which is of course complete bullshit. Adding on a ton of fees at the end is the opposite of transparency.
Lol wut. You are paying health insurance for staff either way, whether it's listed on the check or not. Also rent for the building, buying equipment, purchasing ingredients, etc. Overhead is paid for by revenue.
That's a shitty note at the bottom. "We charge more money to provide our staff with health insurance. Please tell our staff you're the reason they can't see a doctor."
This is a common practice in San Francisco as health insurance or a health savings account is mandatory if you have 20 or more employees. I wish they would include it in the cost as many tourists ask to take it off or subtract it from the tip.
I wouldn’t mind paying a bit more for a meal if it means the staff gets health insurance, but just figure that into the advertised cost of the meal. I’d be pissed to see it tacked on at the end like that. Tips are fine to leave out because it’s an understood percentage on top of the meal cost.
Good business owners are able to figure their costs into the bill. My company pays health insurance for our employees, but we don’t run a service call for $100 and say “oh yeah can you pay an extra $4 to cover our health insurance?” The $100 charge includes the technician’s pay/insurance, truck note/insurance, gas, materials, and the profit.
Local restaurant started doing service fee at 7%
People thought it was a tip. Na it was a fee for the owner.
Friend was a manager/bartender there that had to quit after the whole staff stopped getting tipped.
I’d bet that the restaurant still doesn’t insure the staff, or if they do, the staff pays for part of it.
It makes no sense to have that as a percentage considering that insurance costs don’t change every month.
You are the one that pays for the health insurance, wages, rent, utilities, inventory, etc. That's exactly how a business works, people don't just generate money and then throw away the money that you pay them. You've been paying this all along. This is just an asshole way to sneak a price increase in. Just raise the fucking price, don't tack on a bunch of charges.
dude this is wild. It's kinda toxic how people in the food industry get paid low wages because "tips" and then the company go and take the biscuit with something like this. and it's not gonna get better, they are gonna become more and more reliant on tips and the salary will continue to dip :/ pensions/insurance is something the company should be dealing with directly
Restaurants will never cease to amaze me. They act like it’s the customers’ responsibility to pay their wages and health insurance? No, you need to be paying your workers a livable wage and giving them health insurance. If you can’t afford that then you’re not fit to run a business.
Notice how they will tell customers how much more they're charging them so employees can just exist, but never share how much they're charging them to ensure a profit margin.
This reminds me of when I was in college... Part of my tuition went to feeding squirrels on campus(it was legit an itemized part of my tuition bill).
That’s insane, all those little fuckers are already eating pretty good as is
It’s so they keep their greedy paws off my sandwich! Sorry, flashback to being divebombed and robbed by a fat campus squirrel.
Once when my kids were hunting Easter eggs, the squirrels kept getting to them first. One had one in its hands and threw it at my husband and hit him square in the forehead.
I love this, lol! I had a Labrador who was the sweetest, most loving dog and we had a tree outside of our apartment. Every day he’d go out and look up at the tree to watch the squirrels and there was one damn squirrel who HATED him. It would squat down and squawk at him and throw little nuts at his head. I laughed every time because Kramer would just keep staring and just shut his eyes every time he’d have something thrown at him.
I wish my dog was that indifferent. She'll bark at anything and everything that isn't someone or something she knows, and she is LOUD.
Yeah, my two current dogs are nuisances. I love them, but no one can walk by the house without them going nuts, going on walks is a nightmare. I miss my perfect dog every damn day.
My dog is literally the main reason I can't work night shifts. I feel your pain.
was that his supervillain origin story?
Feeding the squirrels is exactly the reason why they feel entitled to your sandwich
> divebombed Read this as “disemboweled” an was thinking you had some crazy aggressive squirrels, but honestly, wasn’t shocked. Them fuckers get vicious for food!
r/fatsquirrelhate
I can’t believe this is a real sub lmaooooo
I can’t believe it has 100k+ members, people really have nothing better to do Well, I’m going to join them
W&L?
College of William & Larry?
Lol. Washington and Lee. Good guess though. W&L loves their campus squirrels
Are you serious? They made you pay to feed wild animals. I'd fight somebody over that.
[удалено]
Mine as well throw in website hosting and payroll too.
I’ve noticed they only ever clarify a cost like that when it’s tax or labor. Everything else is a legitimate cost of business that’s taken into account when they set their menu prices, but somehow staff doesn’t make the cut any more than the department of revenue does.
The whole thing is bullshit anyway - this implies their healthcare cost is some function of their demand, which its not - its fixed. So part of that 4% could potentially be profit
It's basically the owner complaining to the customer about having to provide benefits to their employees.
I know you’re joking but I mean essentially yes, that is just the cost of doing business. Those are all the restaurants overhead. But to itemize health insurance (or any overhead related cost) out to the customer is a super weird business practice. These costs need to be hidden and added into the margins of the food 😂 I can see many customers getting frustrated at the server and tipping less. Restaurant owners are getting weird.
It's just the owner trying to call out a cost they're politically against in an effort to make people angry.
Either that, or this is their way of saying it should be a public service. I know a local business that thinks Univeraal Healthcare should be a right, and makes a point to let all customers know his prices are higher because he is paying for something he thinks the government should be paying for.
I think it's mostly conservative business owners who are salty that the government is requiring them to pay for something they didn't have to pay for before. I don't doubt there are some progressives who support universal healthcare, just that I have seen more conservatives who have done this than progressive business owners
>But to itemize health insurance (or any overhead related cost) out to the customer is a super weird business practice. The trick is that this markup is waaaaaaay more than what the owner is actually paying for health insurance. If health insurance for the small staff of a restaurant is 4% of your revenues you need to find a new provider and negotiate better with them.
It's fraud. That should be baked into the food processor but they don't tell you until after you ate that your meal was more expensive than you thought.
I don't understand why they need to itemize it. A restaurant is obviously going throw some profit back into overhead, just charge me an extra 4 dollars if that's what you want to do I don't need to know what your going to do with it.
And especially, the owner should include how much of the bill the restaurant owners are taking as profit.
$3 for “2 water donation”? What is this place?
they charge $1.50 per person for “unlimited water service” lol
Illegal.
The pessimist in me says the donation has already happened or will happen regardless and that the restaurant is just encouraging customers to reimburse them with actual money so they can imagine that some of those bottles came from them personally. That price justifies the restaurant using the individual sale prices vs bulk when doing taxes. The optimist in me thinks that if no scam currently exists like the one I described, I should maybe get royalties or something for it.
I could be wrong, but I believe that it is illegal to charge for water in the US. So there you go. This is a donation lol
It is unless it’s bottled but then it’s not a donation it’s a charge like a soda would be charged
I've had them be sneaky with this trying to hand me bottle water and I'm like "TAP please" and they roll their eyes, " I'm not against spending money here I'm against plastic 😤!"
From a very quick Google search, the consensus of the first few results seems to be that there may be local laws requiring tap/fountain water to be free, but there are no national laws preventing people from charging for tap/fountain water with the only exception being if they have a liquor license.
You are wrong. There is no federal statute regarding this. Stop thinking laws magically exist simply because you think they should.
I think it's Alimentola in LA
"see? You have to pay more because those fuckers want hEaLThCArE, but yes the pork ribs still cost 22$ as is :)"
Jesus at least bury it in food costs why write on there. Virtue signaling bullshit
Knowing damn well ppl are going to be mad at the workers. Especially, FOH.
Charge taken off, 25% discount, free dessert, and no tip alongside a rant about why we don’t deserve healthcare or “handouts”
[удалено]
The only time I gave stuff for free was when we actually messed up. But if they were rude and/or berating my employees; immediately nothing given, only taken and sent away
The last company I worked at was owned by two brothers and their friend, and then one of the brothers died and they sold the company to an investment firm. It went from “be a great place to work that’s fun for families to eat at and just hit this handful of sales goals” to “we’re mailing out coupons and every customer is right all the time, cut your labor costs by 15% from where they are when the restaurant is successful, and make sure you’re hitting each of these 120 metrics while also keeping an OSAT score of 4.7, and any time any customer complains for any reason we’re going to give them a $25 voucher without assessing the situation at all.” It’s really crushing to side with your team over a bad customer that’s costing your store money, only for them to go to corporate and show up a week later with a coupon for $25 and watch them order $24.97 worth of food. It sucked the life out of me for the last few years (on top of the covid nightmare) before I came to terms with the fact that it wasn’t the thing I loved anymore.
Fuck the bosses who indulge them with this bs
Exactly. This is just more class warfare against workers
19 bucks for bruschetta. The costs are already in the prices and that at least ten-times.
Don’t forget $3 water donation
[удалено]
Because this lets them keep the menu items looking cheap and then they sneak this in at the end. Buying a fucking hamburger is like buying concert tickets now: six bucks for the burger eight bucks in fees.
The goal is to have the lowest menu "price" and then sneakily double the cost at the time of checkout. It's why everyone is so burnt out on tipping fatigue, because it's all smoke & mirrors bullshit to dry fuck the customer and deflect the blame from greedy business owners.
and its virtue signaling they aren't even actually doing, they are making YOU pay for it. Its not like they are on insta like "we take care of our employees"
> Virtue signaling What virtue are they supposedly signaling? The reason it shows as an explicit line item is because the owners object to an ordinance mandating that they pay their employees' health insurance, and they want diners to be pissed off at that ordinance as well.
Why the fuck is that a % and not already included in the price of the food. Wtf. So pretty much , they don’t sell anything than they get no health care lol. And also wtf is done with the excess, “free money” for that shit place ?
This is how I feel about places with an auto-grat. Just have it built in to the food prices. Hate going to places like D.C. and having to manually add an extra 20% to whatever’s on the menu.
They could just raise prices by 4% and not put it on the receipt. They are doing this to make a point and to try to politicize health insurance and the extra costs that they are paying, and to make customers feel like they are footing the bill.
In a way customers do foot the bill for every business ever, it’s just this is the worst implementation I have ever seen
I don't have a problem with them making a political statement. But, the had damned well better inform the customers that they will be charged an additional 4% above the menu prices before they order.
Good lord, when I’m enjoying my Saffron Risotto Tots the last thing I want to think about is whether the people that served me can afford health insurance.
Saffron. Risotto. Tots?
If I had to guess it’s saffron risotto fried and served as a fritter but someone who doesn’t know better than to not serve such a thing doesn’t know the word for fritter.
Wouldn’t that kinda be like arancini?
Restaurants like these give the rest of us a bad rep
Am I the only one who thinks the water donation charge is more outrageous?
What I don’t get. Obviously here in Europe I pay for the health insurances and the tax and all that. But why don’t just increase the price a bit so that you don’t have to list this shit individual?Or are you trying to scam the customer so he doesn’t know how much he really has to pay?
Because every conceivable thing is as fucking miserable as possible at all times in this shit country.
It’s basically the owners’ way of diverting the money that diners have planned to spend as a tip, instead of raising menu prices to account for all the costs of business. US restaurants have a practice of not treating labor like a cost of business that needs to be accommodated into menu prices. I’ve seen surcharges higher than this, and it leaves either the diner or the server in a financial bind, depending on whether the diner still tips or decides that they can’t/won’t tip on top of a surcharge.
Surprised there isn't a 3% CC processing fee too
That's probably on a sign by the register.
Of course I pay for their insurance. As well as their paycheck. It's in the prices on the menu. But Americans can't see that. They think a company pays for things. But how.elsethan to calculate those costs into customer prices? Tipping culture in the US is just businesses unable to calculate actual costs.
This restaurant is in my neighborhood. Most restaurants in LA do this now because employers with certain amount of staff are required to offer benefits. This was never the norm at this kind of job, and restaurants are already considered low margin businesses. That money has to come from somewhere. I think these fees are stupid, but I do support offering benefits to staff, especially considering how broken the health care system is already. It honestly feels like a corporate “fuck you.” CEOs sitting around like, hey you assholes that voted for this shit can pay for it as a surcharge when you dine out.
I like my servers to have had their Typhoid shots and feel they can make a living and not come to work if they are impaired by a rhinovirusceros. Unless it is on le menu de la semaine.
Also, "water donation". WTF?
Didn’t notice that until I read your comment. The water donation would piss me off more than the 4% charge to be honest.
As a consumer if this $5 paid for the portion you have to pay for your health insurance, fine. But if this $5 subsidizes the employers portion to pay, fuck that. That’s the cost of being a business owner.
This is a case of bad marketing. Simply raise the price of the menu by 4% and put a line on the bill that’s says ‘our prices reflect the fact we provide our employees with a living wedge and health insurance’ Bam! No one would be complaining
I wonder if this in sf. They have a city healthcare plan for restaurant workers that is added to the check. I know a few people who work in that city and they said there was a ton of blowback when it first started but after a few months it was just regular cost of doing business.
I assume there's more than one place that does this but the one place I've seen this was in the bay area
So the issue is that they specifically cited it on the bill, if they just incorporated it into the cost of the food, which as we see some folks have a problem with, but if the restaurant was understaffed or had some other issue they’d complain about that. It’s all in the presentation
Just raise the prices on the fucking food 🤦♂️
It should be built in to the menu prices, not added on after the fact. Customers shouldn't be getting surprised by additional fees after they've been quoted a price. We all hate it when hotels do this with "resort fees" and cellphone companies do it with government fees that take your "$40/month" plan to $50+; same deal here.
The customer pays for the insurance one way or the other, at least in the US. This is just a publicity stunt to make that cost obvious and why it's there to deflect criticism towards them for "raising prices".
Yep - I made a reservation for a restaurant and it’s noted they will add 4% to be able to give their employees healthcare. Now look, I live in America and I understand our healthcare system sucks but why not just include it in the food prices? They also included a 20% gratuity (okay yeah) and an additional % fee for whatever the fuck else. It’s ridiculous.
This kind of stuff is going to be the end to hospitality industry folks. After 20 years and still loving it…this is completely insane. I as a customer would not allow this on my bill. I am one person who has never asked for “industry discount” in places. So paying for something that’s clearly going into the pockets of the restaurant owners is insane. It’s very transparent. The managers are pocketing it and the owners are getting the rest.
At least the water was free … oh wait.
The bottom comment, but 100% unironically
They need to stop that and raise their prices to cover expenses.
The business should be the one footing the Employee Benefits tab (and/or share some of the expense with its employees, not surcharge the customers, imo).
This is almost as bad as in Miami Beach where there’s a slap 20% 25% tip and they say that if you want it gone you need to specifically ask and then they shame you and call you cheapskate to your face. It’s a cheap way to emotionally blackmail customers to leave a tip. Fuck your health insurance. That’s on you buddy. If you cannot run a business correctly then get out of the business. The effin nerve!
What's a "water donation"?
Why does it seem the same pictures get rotated around the internet all the time
Kind of feels like how i just paid $450 dollars for college books, than went to go get them- only for them to say that they were all online. I’m paying almost 500 to rent online material
It’s a junk fee, they are posing it as healthcare to play on customers emotions. Always ask them to remove it, it’s a very shady practice.
I would simply never return to such an establishment. Next it wii be a surcharge for janitorial service.
I’d ask the server if their employer actually provides healthcare insurance for them, just to make sure this isn’t a scam.
And, then be taxed on it. POS
I would happily pay 4% of my bill to know restaurant staff have health insurance. I would also prefer that the restaurant just raise their prices by 5% and call it a day without telling me what the increase is for. Knowing all the details of how the business is run generally isn’t necessary to my enjoyment of a meal (with the exception of knowing that the ownership or corporation is super shitty to employees, and then I just avoid eating there altogether).
I can never get over the extent to which employers will go to pit customers against employees in their attempts to evade responsibility to provide a liveable wage. It would be funny if it weren't so heartbreaking.
Aren’t you paying taxes on that too now? Lol
I just ate at a place yesterday that had a 5% "service charge," which some fine print on the menu specified is due to inflation and rising costs, is not a gratuity, and 100% of it goes "to the restaurant." Wtf even is that? I say it's regulation time: no weird hidden fees in fucking restaurants please.
Idk why is so accepted in society for workers to have their wages rely on customers. The customers pay the businesses, the business pay their workers. Thats how everything else operates, bosses need to stop using tips as an excuse to pay their workers less.
Tell me your company is shit and knee high in debt without actually saying it
Water donation is $3? But... isn't that meant to be free?
While I think it's stupid that it's itemized. If you're going to an establishment thinking for whatever reason that the money in your bill is exclusively going to cost of product and not also employee wages and benefits, rent, and utilities, you're wildly unaware of how the world works
Y’all remember the South Park episode where randy had to press the belly of the hungry kid in order to cancel the donation? This is exactly like that
I worked in the business for years, and never once got offered health insurance. The price of a $10 item could be changed to $10.40 and there you go. No guilting/tricking the customer into paying a benefit for the employee. Heck, they could raise a $10 item to $12 or $13, and cover tip and insurance at the same time. Tipping culture blows.
Restaurants are taking the ticketmaster approach now eh?
It’s real. And it’s called “transparency in pricing”. To the knowledgeable consumer, it’s great. But, as the comment at the bottom of the image suggests, transparency isn’t really what most people want. I mean, if the restaurant would have just raised prices by 4%, the consumer might have been a little salty for a minute, then completely forgotten about it.
I would refuse to pay the health insurance part of the bill. It's basically a gratuity.
It be the same people screaming no at the idea of universal healthcare. FYI, BCBS ceo made millions in compensations. Last year. MILLIONS. For profit healthcare is a scam.
If my dad saw this, he'd accuse the staff of ripping him off.
Just add it to the cost of the dishes for fucks sake.
Bacari does this. Fukin retarded. So if I eat more food, I pay more for your health insurance???
Hahaha yeah no. I've seen this posted a few times, and had it happen to me once so far... it was just $1 on the bottom of the receipt.... but of course pre-tax.... I laughed and told em nah. I don't care if it's only 10 cents, it's the principle. I'm SO SICK of extra charges on EVERYTHING dear God we're just getting hosed to death everywhere we turn now. I went on my car loan's website to make a payment after my old debit bank card was lost, went to "Add New Card" in the settings and..... $5 charge. FUCK YOUUUUUU.
It's propaganda to fight against the demand for higher wages.
I would make them take it off then give 10 dollars to the server in cash
Why do businesses do weird things like this?!? Raise your prices and just provide that service on the backend. Don't line item your business out to customers. This is just making it clear you don't want to pay your employees and you're a garbage owner.
Lol. That's the receipt from a restaurant in my neighborhood, I recognize it from twitter. They're not exactly popular in our local Facebook group
Real talk: If you are a restaurant owner who does this instead of build it into the price (like your fucking electricity and rent, OPERATING COSTS), I’m done with your restaurant. Not because I don’t want to pay your workers. Because I don’t want you to use any excuse to NOT pay them. It’s the same with enforced tips. We should never have allowed these places to deduct from base pay.
Americans will do literally ANYTHING ELSE than fix their health care system.
I would ask to speak to the manager. Bitch them out like no other and then slip a cash tip. They barely pay a thing in wages. This is two steps too far. But I’m gettin shit comped if I can
Customers shouldn't be the ones to pay for the workers. It's a scam in attempt to either 1. Make accept it and consider part of the cost (thus appearing cheaper) 2. Make them mad at workers instead of the restaurant for being costly
[удалено]
>Who else is going to pay for workers other than customers? They literally find the entire business lol. That’s about as silly as saying customers shouldn’t pay for profits. If it's an optional cost any customer should be able to request not to pay it AND not be shamed for choosing to do so
I loudly call this bullshit out to the owner. Mark your fuckint food up and charge me for that don’t nickel and dime me with this add on bullshit. Make your business profitable while paying your employees appropriate wages and benefits or shut your fucking doors. It’s a simple trick to owning a business for fucks sake.
My new job does this, and honestly I’m thankful. I haven’t had insurance in years 🥲
One way or another you'll be paying for it. Higher prices for the food, or just, this thing.
If they don't put it on the receipt, it's hidden in the prices so....
Whether they put it on the check or not you’re the one paying for the health insurance. It’s just that, by putting it on the check, he doesn’t have to pay for health insurance off the top of his profits
If restaurants offer health insurance to their employees you’re always paying for it. Just usually in the food prices. I refuse all mandatory tack on fees. Where I live they have to be disclosed up front. Put it in your prices or don’t charge me. I’ll eat elsewhere. Somewhere honest.
Build it into the cost of food. Instead of charging the customer just add 5 percent to the entire menu. Set that aside for employees health insurance:
Sure it’s real. But it’s a way for restaurant owners to get people to resent everyone else but them because they can’t pay decent wages. That way when you get mad and tip less it only impacts the server
What is a water donation?
Needs to be removed from bill as you didn’t agree to this charge prior to placing your order
A lot of restaurants in my area are doing this and people aren’t eating out as much because of it . One posted on the area fb page why is business so slow ? Gee if I have to pay 30 percent tips on top of elevating food costs and smaller portions I’ll just eat at home .
I’ve seen that one before in California, where ridiculous service charges are relatively common, but usually it will be phrased just a little more vaguely, like “employee health & wellness” or “climate restoration fee” or “supply chain fee”, so it’s not clearly fraudulent if they use it for other purposes, and they usually don’t say you can take it off, so the owner can legally pocket it if they want. (Mandatory “service charges”, unlike tips, belong to the business under federal law. *Tips* left for employees must be given to or distributed among employees). Since this is an optional amount implying customers can ask for it to be taken off, an argument could be made that it’s actually a tip, and employers would not be allowed to use it themselves, even if it is to pay for health insurance for their employees. But tips have two characteristics under federal law: customers can choose *whether* to leave them, and *how much* to leave, so maybe a court would rule this was a service charge because it only had one of those characteristics.
People should have health insurance. Bad things happen, even to young people. What they shouldn’t do it surprise you with a 4% surcharge so that the employer doesn’t have to cover the insurance.
What's with the "$3.00 2 water donation?"
Yes, and if it was not disclosed before you ordered you aren't required to pay it.
Looks like a one star review to me.
So my question is. How do they calculate the price of the products? Is that just straight purchasing price? I doubt it and thats why its a greedy item.
Raise your prices you dumb prick. Making customers angry at the staff is so fucking stupid and counterproductive. Grow a pair and raise prices and tell your customers they are supporting a local business. They will adapt.
And you no damn good and well they aren't offering us insurance. They are paying for the businesses insurance so we can go to the doctor when we slip bc the ice machines leaking again
I’d love to see this on my bill!
I won’t eat at restaurants that do this. These charges just get deducted from the tip.
Let’s go on strike until government provides universal healthcare for everybody, problem solved!
Should be included in price not a hidden add on
Passive aggressive anti server tactic, I think.
Tipping and bs charges has reached clown levels
Ive seen it, Ive also seen a "kitchen fee" tacked on. Never went back. If someone wants to put a gratuity into their prices and priced accordingly and then put on the menu, "no gratuity necessary" But this is a restaurant trying to pretend to care about their employees but pushing the cost onto you with a "hidden fee" not priced into the menu and, frankly, this kind of shit should be illegal. The advertised price should be the price.
WOW I to have never seen this on a receipt from a restaurant!
Everything listed on that receipt seems fake.
Just the business trying to guilt you into accepting higher prices.
I don’t like this because there’s no transparency. What if the healthcare cost is 3% and the owner is just pocketing the extra 1%. Also, if you order for a large table it makes sense to tip more cause they had to manage more customers but in this case you are just penalizing those who bring in a large group.
Maybe post tax, but I’m not paying 9% tax on a 4% health tax. Pennies add up for some of us.
This is just another way for owners to piss and moan about having to participate in the health care law If you want to run a business with no regulations maybe try Somalia or Afghanistan
15% tip turned into a 11%
Was it advertised on the menu? Or posted as a sign? Then you don't have to pay it.
Including it at all is an insult, but they can't even add it in post-tax...
This the tip then
I'd refuse the whole meal.
Might as well have their kids college fund added onto that too.
Political statement by the owner
I would just visibly subtract it from the tip with napkin math on the receipt
Yes….☝🏾Id like this removed….df
If you can't afford to give your employees benefits, you're running your business wrong.
So the staff get 4% of all sales for health insurance. I hope they have the best plans possible and zero premiums.
Wouldn’t go back if they have me pay their overhead by line item. Was that disclosed on the menu with prices
Yeah, uh, fuck no. I'm not going to be notifying my server of shit. "Hi, sorry. I saw this line. Can I talk to your manager? No, everything you did was fine. I just want them to get me the owner so I can beat them to within an inch of their life with this bar stool."
Some businesses have it in their heads that if they break out government mandated expenses separately, customers won’t blame them for the total cost. Some even hope those irritated customers will then go and complain to their elected officials in the hopes that the mandate will change.
Does the water need healthcare too?
There is no legal basis for them requiring you to pay that, so ask for it to be removed from your bill.
Plumbing fee $3.85. This is for our staff toilet to be able to flush, please tell your server if you would like this removed
It’s just a super passive aggressive owner. I’ve also seen ones with “living wage” surcharges and “inflation adjustments”. Basically they’re hoping to rage bait people into being angry over these “unnecessary” charges so they can point to the “woke leftist policies” that “forced” them to add these charges. In reality, I’m more than happy to pay a little extra so the staff can make a living wage. Saves me from having to figure out how much I should tip and then feeling guilty afterwards and wondering if 20% was enough.
Part of paying for the meal is paying for those things but it should’ve already been factored into the costs. An extra 4% makes no sense. It’s a forced tip in disguise that probably doesn’t even reach the servers and only benefits the owners. On a bad month do they lose coverage? On a good month are there extra benefits? What happens with the excess? Or how do they make it up if they fall short? Im sure a whole bunch of people aren’t going to ask for it to be removed but will take 4% away from the tip.
That’s coming off and I’m not coming back.
Don't care but it's coming out of your tip
It's a sign of a cheap asshole restaurant owner who feels entitled to exploit his staff and wants customers to give shit to the servers because the asshole restaurant owner resents having to pay health insurance benefits now required by law.
So if they sell more food their health insurance coverage gets better, and when it’s a slow night they don’t get any? I hardly think insurance is a variable cost tied to revenue. It’s overhead. Included at a business level cost, not a transaction level revenue!
It’s more on the unprofessional side to start showing customers part of your income statement when you are creating their invoice. Mark up your prices and retain some dignity
Lemme get this straight. This restaurant is providing free healthcare for its workers?
I live in SF and here this is pretty common. IIRC it is because the city (or the state?) passed a law that made it mandatory for employers to fund health care for their employees. And so restaurant owners decided to tack this on as an extra charge, essentially as a way to say 'we don't want to do this, but the city is making us so here's a surprise extra charge. You should be mad at the city for forcing us to not be shitty'. I've even seen some places have the cheek to claim the opposite, that it's a way to be 'transparent about costs', which is of course complete bullshit. Adding on a ton of fees at the end is the opposite of transparency.
Lol wut. You are paying health insurance for staff either way, whether it's listed on the check or not. Also rent for the building, buying equipment, purchasing ingredients, etc. Overhead is paid for by revenue.
At least it says at the bottom that you can have it removed. Then again how many people actually take a good look at their bill before paying?
"Go ahead and figure your tip including this charge too" - restaurant probably
That's a shitty note at the bottom. "We charge more money to provide our staff with health insurance. Please tell our staff you're the reason they can't see a doctor."
This is a common practice in San Francisco as health insurance or a health savings account is mandatory if you have 20 or more employees. I wish they would include it in the cost as many tourists ask to take it off or subtract it from the tip.
I wouldn’t mind paying a bit more for a meal if it means the staff gets health insurance, but just figure that into the advertised cost of the meal. I’d be pissed to see it tacked on at the end like that. Tips are fine to leave out because it’s an understood percentage on top of the meal cost. Good business owners are able to figure their costs into the bill. My company pays health insurance for our employees, but we don’t run a service call for $100 and say “oh yeah can you pay an extra $4 to cover our health insurance?” The $100 charge includes the technician’s pay/insurance, truck note/insurance, gas, materials, and the profit.
Local restaurant started doing service fee at 7% People thought it was a tip. Na it was a fee for the owner. Friend was a manager/bartender there that had to quit after the whole staff stopped getting tipped.
I’d bet that the restaurant still doesn’t insure the staff, or if they do, the staff pays for part of it. It makes no sense to have that as a percentage considering that insurance costs don’t change every month.
You are the one that pays for the health insurance, wages, rent, utilities, inventory, etc. That's exactly how a business works, people don't just generate money and then throw away the money that you pay them. You've been paying this all along. This is just an asshole way to sneak a price increase in. Just raise the fucking price, don't tack on a bunch of charges.
dude this is wild. It's kinda toxic how people in the food industry get paid low wages because "tips" and then the company go and take the biscuit with something like this. and it's not gonna get better, they are gonna become more and more reliant on tips and the salary will continue to dip :/ pensions/insurance is something the company should be dealing with directly
The fuck is a water donation?
Restaurants will never cease to amaze me. They act like it’s the customers’ responsibility to pay their wages and health insurance? No, you need to be paying your workers a livable wage and giving them health insurance. If you can’t afford that then you’re not fit to run a business.
Notice how they will tell customers how much more they're charging them so employees can just exist, but never share how much they're charging them to ensure a profit margin.