First off this place is great, service is excellent. I just find it sneaky and kind of kills a great meal when they add sneaky charges like this. Why is the consumer meant to pay the healthcare? Why can’t they just raise their prices by a few bucks? This should be illegal. Bums me out because I want to support the staff but I have no idea if this really goes to their healthcare. SMH
by ArtSchoolAcid90
16 Comments
It is illegal in that you can have it removed if it isn’t listed on the menu.
Businesses can’t just charge you whatever they want after the fact. They have to post prices. If they don’t, you don’t have to pay them.
So customers are paying for their employees healthcare? Waiters should be tipping us after our meals then 💀
The suggested gratuities are more offensive tbh. And it’s based on post tax prices
Restaurants are navigating through a new era. Just after servers starting getting minimum wage and minimum wage went up, covid hit and restaurants either went out of business or had a hard time staying open.
People started tipping up the ying yang to help restaurants out, to do what we could to help them stay afloat. Problem was, this didn’t help them say afloat because all that extra tipping must legally go to servers. Servers tip out the bussers and maybe some other staff but not the cooks and the chefs and the managers.
Just raise prices? Well that would mean fewer customers maybe, and probably higher tips that again would just go to the servers.
Is this at Etta?
Just had a brunch at La Cha Cha and they have a surcharge too, 4%
If they don’t disclose it prior, that’s one thing (and you wouldn’t need to pay it). Otherwise, however, the consumer’s paying for healthcare one way or another (or they’re not giving healthcare or going out of business) whether it’s via a 4% fee or they raise all the prices on the menu 4%.
Margot in Culver City also has a 4% fee… restaurant fee …. optional and can be removed upon request. WTF is a restaurant fee? If optional, why put it on??? Their prices are already high.
It’s a charade…they call it “wellness” to make it sound like they are good guys…it’s unregulated so you don’t really know where that surcharge goes…if owners just raise prices..the the servers will just get an even bigger tip, sticker shock will scare away some customers…yet ownership margins are small and getting smaller…..boh doesn’t want to do the heavy lifting without a big change in this system
I can only imagine that customers are gonna see these mandatory charges and say “fuck a tip”. The kicker is those businesses that charge 15+% automatically and expect everyone to still tip. The fucking gall.
Does this mean if people don’t pay the wellness tax that the workers there don’t get health insurance? If the workers there are not independent contractors, how can this be legal?
So in that case I’d figure 15% of $91 and subtract $3.64. No 20% tip no matter how good the service for making me go through this ridiculous process.
It’s time that we, the customer, starts billing the restaurant an “appearance fee” that is equal to these bullshit add-ons. We made an effort to be there in person and even put on a clean shirt. That should count for something.
But did you die?
That will be $3.64.
This was for Lillie’s, right? Someone should add it to the list – [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EEPzeytrva770H2xPFFPDUUNdpnL_VQL4vbzFph-jus/edit#gid=0](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EEPzeytrva770H2xPFFPDUUNdpnL_VQL4vbzFph-jus/edit#gid=0)
Margot doesn’t have 18% surcharge… unless big party. We were informed the 4% surcharge (optional) is for restaurant operation. No wellness no BOH but restaurant operation. We asked to remove it and added to tip.