What do you think of restaurants adding a charge for employee health benefits to guest checks? —Marie J., St. Louis
A few weeks ago, a customer at a Georgetown restaurant reportedly dropped $300 for some caviar, two entrées, and a few glasses of wine but objected to an additional 2 percent “health and wellness” surcharge—what amounted to $6—added to cover health insurance for the restaurant staff. The fracas ignited a social media fire about an unpopular topic: incidental charges on restaurant checks, for which the restaurant owner allegedly received “a lot of feedback, some supportive but much negative.”
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On one side are the owners who espouse complete transparency. They take care of their employees and want their guests to know it, explaining the charge ahead of time on the restaurant’s website, menus, and reservation platform. At other establishments, similar surcharges have recently been levied to subsidize credit card fees, increased food costs, to-go container costs, and additional safety equipment costs. Many opted to go with a simple “COVID surcharge” of a few dollars. One operator raised hackles by calling an added tourism tax a ‘pub improv fee’ (which became the subject of this Ask George). We similarly addressed the “COVID surcharge” here.
On the other side are the operators who choose to roll any and all incidentals into the menu prices, from soft drink refills and added condiments to the charges noted above, transparency be damned.
We typically choose to pitch our tent in the latter camp. While helping a restaurant with health care fees or COVID-related charges is more noble than the extra 50 cents levied for a side of sour cream, the customer may infer it as being nickel-and-dimed—and if that’s the impression the customer leaves with, then the restaurant has failed on that evening.
We recall the colleague who opined that diners are now resigned to paying a little more, but nobody wants to see their guest check terminate in miniscule miscellaneous charges. No reasons. No excuses. No well-intended explanations. Restaurant owners should just raise their menu prices, and be done with it. We’ll pay.
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