Restaurant Ads ‘Minimum Wage Fee’ To Checks
This restaurant owner objects that he now has to pay servers $8 an hour instead of $7.25, and so he is letting his customers know by adding an item to each check called “minimum wage fee.”
Via the Star Tribune:
Oasis Cafe owner Craig Beemer said the fee is needed to offset the 75-cent wage hike that took effect Aug. 1, the first time Minnesota’s minimum wage has increased in a decade. Even with only half a dozen servers, Beemer says it will cost him $10,000 more a year to pay servers $8 an hour instead of the federal rate of $7.25 an hour. Instead of adding it on to food prices, he added the “minimum wage fee” — the only restaurant known to do so in Minnesota so far.
It’s set off a firestorm of debate on Facebook and in the east metro community, with one customer calling the cafe Wednesday to demand a refund and others taking to Facebook to encourage people to boycott the roadside cafe.
“We’re shocked at what’s going on,” manager Colin Orcutt said of the public response. “We’re all appalled at the response for just protecting his employees. We’re just doing what we have to do.”
No, Colin, you don’t “have to” do it. You are doing it as a protest and without generosity of spirit one would hope for in a caring employer.
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R.J. Carter August 9th, 2014 at 14:53
Cheap? He’s actually spending more money on register tape in the long run, just to let people know why they’re paying more for their food.
arc99 August 9th, 2014 at 17:47
If we want a complete picture of this then the receipt should also have a space to ask everyone coming to that restaurant if the increase in the state minimum wage enabled them to spend more money than they would have previously, and if so how much more.
I have a hunch that it will be a lot more than $0.35 per table.
Rocket Don August 11th, 2014 at 16:03
Of course minimum wage earners will have a little more money to spend, but that money has to come from somewhere, which means that other people will have a little less money to spend – in this case it’s the restaurants customers who will have a little less money to spend. You cannot create wealth by simply giving someone a raise…
arc99 August 9th, 2014 at 17:47
If we want a complete picture of this then the receipt should also have a space to ask everyone coming to that restaurant if the increase in the state minimum wage enabled them to spend more money than they would have previously, and if so how much more.
I have a hunch that it will be a lot more than $0.35 per table.
Rocket Don August 11th, 2014 at 16:03
Of course minimum wage earners will have a little more money to spend, but that money has to come from somewhere, which means that other people will have a little less money to spend – in this case it’s the restaurants customers who will have a little less money to spend. You cannot create wealth by simply giving someone a raise…