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New on Your Dinner Tab: a Labor Surcharge: Rather than jack up menu prices [tr]
Wall Street Journal ^ | March 9, 2017 | Julie Jargon

Posted on 03/09/2017 12:25:34 PM PST by C19fan

Restaurant diners are footing the bill for rising minimum wages.

In lieu of steep menu price increases, many independent and regional chain restaurants in states including Arizona, California, Colorado and New York are adding surcharges of 3% to 4% to help offset rising labor costs. Industry analysts expect the practice to become widespread as more cities and states increase minimum wages.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Food
KEYWORDS: restaurants; wages
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To: C19fan

If they charged me 5% on a $20 bill,I’d leave a $3 tip [normally I’d leave $4]. Then, I’d tell the waiter to get the other dollar from their boss ...


21 posted on 03/09/2017 12:54:43 PM PST by Lmo56 (If ya wanna run with the big dawgs - ya gotta learn to piss in the tall grass ..)
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To: C19fan
Isn't a Labor Surcharge another name for a "Tip"?

I would consider it so and pay that in lieu of a cash tip. If the server complains, I'd tell them to work it out with their employer since their employer has already been paid the "Labor Surcharge".

Otherwise, just raise the prices on the menu and let the free market decide where people will choose to dine.

22 posted on 03/09/2017 12:55:16 PM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (Good judgement comes from experience. And experience? Well, that comes from poor judgement.)
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To: HarleyLady27

Very well said. And you can select whatever you like to eat and prepare it the way you like it (instead of having to select from whatever they want to get rid of) and you control the size of the portions.


23 posted on 03/09/2017 12:55:40 PM PST by RAldrich
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To: C19fan
They are also likely to reduce tips.
24 posted on 03/09/2017 12:55:45 PM PST by Robert357 (D.Rather "Hoist with his own petard!" www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1223916/posts)
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To: C19fan

Tipping is an earned payment. I noticed on cruise ships when they automatically set and collected the tip amounts for the wait staff into your final bill, the service went to non-existent. So we told them not to take it out and we would determine our own tip amounts, which they were required to do. With the mess people, who did almost nothing, that’s what they got. Our room people did an outstanding job and we left tips for them in the room of substantial amounts. But they earned it.

We also go to restaurants and don’t automatically tip at 15%. We figure the 15%, and the wait staff is expected to accomplish needs. If no drink refills, that’s 25% off the tip. If they don’t bring the right food or drinks, 25% off. If they do not check if the food is properly prepared after they bring it and give customerrts the chance to taste it, that’s 25% off. If they mess up the check, that’s 25% off.

We don’t expect anything but the service to get us the food and drinks correctly, and make sure it is prepared correctly, and be honest in the charge. I will pay for the food under most conditions, but 4 strikes and you’re out a tip.

red


25 posted on 03/09/2017 12:57:34 PM PST by Redwood71
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To: dp0622

The Chef Boyardee Pizza Kit making a big comeback?


26 posted on 03/09/2017 12:57:41 PM PST by Calvin Locke
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To: HarleyLady27
I am with you Ma'am.

My wife has 'complained' that I have ruined her for restaurant food. The way I cook and what I cook is designed for her palate and tastes and we rarely have any need to dine out. Unless friends want that kind of get-together.

27 posted on 03/09/2017 12:58:04 PM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (Good judgement comes from experience. And experience? Well, that comes from poor judgement.)
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To: cyclotic

It is listed as a separate item. And they tell you outright, if you don’t like it, go ahead and reduce your tip.


28 posted on 03/09/2017 12:58:41 PM PST by BunnySlippers (I LOVE BULL MARKETS!!!)
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To: C19fan

A restaurant did this to our party of six in a popular spot in Vermont. We will never return. I want prices on the menu. Not a surprise when I pay the bill.We did not leave a tip.


29 posted on 03/09/2017 1:01:06 PM PST by lucky american (Progressives are attac Iking our rights and y'all will sit there and take it.)
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To: C19fan

OK. Will subtract it from the tip.


30 posted on 03/09/2017 1:08:04 PM PST by Kozak (DIVERSITY+PROXIMITY=CONFLICT)
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To: Calvin Locke

what’s “chefBoyardee”? :)

Is that like pizza hut, dominoes, papa john’s, little caesars, and any other stale bread with ketchup and american cheese pizza chains most of america gets their pizza at :)


31 posted on 03/09/2017 1:08:39 PM PST by dp0622 (The only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
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To: C19fan

I never tip.


32 posted on 03/09/2017 1:22:36 PM PST by koalkracker1981
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To: C19fan

It would be interesting to see what the waitstaff will say when people use that surcharge as the tip; but then some restaurants will go all Frenchie and start adding a Service Non Compris services charged that are not on the bill. One restaurant I went to added that charge (15%) - never went back again. A few months later they went out of business when other people found that out.


33 posted on 03/09/2017 1:22:40 PM PST by SkyDancer (Ambition Without Talent Is Sad, Talent Without Ambition Is Worse)
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To: C19fan

Well, restaurants have to earn enough to pay the bills, including their labor costs. If the increase in labor costs is so much that it tips the balance for them into the red, then, something’s got to give. Otherwise they won’t stay in business very long.

Most restaurants operate on narrow profit margins. It seems they have decided they would rather add a surcharge, rather than just increase menu prices.


34 posted on 03/09/2017 1:24:12 PM PST by Dilbert San Diego
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To: cyclotic
I am going to reflect on my tip, period....I can't pay 18% tips on top of tax PLUS the 3%.....

sorry waiters....you are going to loose....

it'll help the fast food places but places where people tip, not so much...

you waiters are going to loose your EIC plus cheap college grants because you make more money now and you are going to loose your good tips, which were mostly under the table anyway...

35 posted on 03/09/2017 1:24:57 PM PST by cherry (<_)
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To: cyclotic
If I ever saw that, it would be reflected in my tip, if I even hung around.

True.My habit is to tip somewhere between 15 and 20%.But seeing a "surcharge" like this at a restaurant I liked wouldn't drive me away...it would,as with you,lower my tip.

36 posted on 03/09/2017 1:25:14 PM PST by Gay State Conservative (Deplorables' Lives Matter)
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To: cyclotic
I am going to reflect on my tip, period....I can't pay 18% tips on top of tax PLUS the 3%.....

sorry waiters....you are going to loose....

it'll help the fast food places but places where people tip, not so much...

you waiters are going to loose your EIC plus cheap college grants because you make more money now and you are going to loose your good tips, which were mostly under the table anyway...

37 posted on 03/09/2017 1:25:16 PM PST by cherry (<_)
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To: C19fan

Mr. Pink is vindicated.


38 posted on 03/09/2017 1:27:02 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: C19fan

well just let me cook and clean up dinner myself... oh wait... i already do that.


39 posted on 03/09/2017 1:34:22 PM PST by Frapster
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To: HarleyLady27
Excellent Points, all.

Mrs Wbill and I only eat out at places where I either don't have the ability to cook the food (think, deep-fried seafood, which I shouldn't eat anyway), or we don't have the unusual spices, etc.

I can't remember the last time we went out for steak, or burgers, or anything Italian. Years, probably.

Last place that we went was a local joint, been there for a million years, and sells fried barbecue chicken. Hours are 4:00pm until they run out. Best to get there early. :-)

40 posted on 03/09/2017 1:36:23 PM PST by wbill
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