Discussion: Restaurant Charging 'Minimum Wage Fee' Due To Minnesota Wage Hike

[system1]

Discussion for article #226094

[KenR4th]

What asses!

A 35 cent surcharge just shows how trivial it is to overall costs to pay employees something closer to a living wage.

What mean-spirited cheapskates they must consider their customers to be!

[radicalcentrist]

Yes, prices will have to rise in order to provide a living wage and health care for restaurant workers. Consumers can’t expect a Dollar Menu and decently-paid happy workers-the numbers don’t add up. That said, this “fee” is a silly way to do that. Just raise prices and if you feel you need to explain why, just do so. Also, be prepared to open your books and show that the additional revenue is going to the workers and not into your own pocket.

[jonathang]

If he’d just raised the base prices of his food items just a little, it wouldn’t have been a big deal and most people wouldn’t have noticed or cared. But I suspect that this “surcharge” was a way of trying to push the blame for the price increase off on his employees [or the government], fortunately it seems to have backfired.

[mcbain]

If his cost for of an ingredient on an item in the menu goes up, will he add an extra fee for that, or just raise the price? What about his rent?

The guy could have slightly raised prices and no one would have noticed. Instead he had to be a d-bag and let the world know that he thinks he is really the victim here.

[antisachetdethe]

“We’re all appalled at the response for just protecting his employees. We’re just doing what we have to do,” he said.

Uh… You are serving the public. Whatever happened to “the customer is always right?”

[dewelar]

“We’re all appalled at the response for just protecting his employees. We’re just doing what we have to do,”

No, you’re not “just” doing that. You’re doing it in a way that makes it a political statement. Don’t fake surprise when people recognize that and act accordingly. All that accomplishes is insulting your customers, which isn’t the best business model.

[ncsteve]

But on the upside, he’s guaranteed to piss off a third to a half of his customers. It’s sheer Randian marketing genius, I tell you! Who wants pro-moochers dollars?

[mcbain]

If his costs increase due to minimum wage, then that is big bad government screwing him.

If his costs increase due to his rent or insurance premiums rising, well, that’s just a cost of doing business.

As much as they like to wish it were not true, government regulations is just another cost of business. Everyone has to deal with it. It’s not an attack on any one person. They need to get over themselves or move to a country where the “burden” isn’t so high.

[johniwaniszek]

Bribery costs much more

[darcy]

“Beemer told the Start Tribune that it will cost him an extra $10,000 per year to pay his six servers a higher wage.”

Ah, victimhood, it’s all the rage. And let’s add exaggeration on to the victimhood:

6 servers X 35 hrs per week = about 200 hrs per week X .35 bump in minimum wage X 52 weeks brings us to about an additional $3,500 per year, not $10,000.00.

Now customers are pissed, servers get stiffed on tips, business fails. Servers unemployed. Minimum wage to blame. Amazing.

[meri]

No different from the jackasses and their Obamacare fees.

[johnconley]

If you’re a bad enough manager with profit margins so razor-thin, I suggest you close and find another industry to fail in. Crybabies.

[old_curmudgeon]

“‘We’re all appalled at the response for just protecting his employees. We’re just doing what we have to do,’” he said.

Need I point out that it’s not the employees who are “protected” by the “fee?” It’s the bottom line.

Up against the wall…

[meri]

Same idea as “job creators” doing best to create jobs just because they’re good people.

[rudesan]

This minimum wage increase is in conflict with my core religious beliefs. Do I still have to pay the 35 cents?

[mjv135]

Maybe they could more accurately call it a ‘surcharge to keep my profit margin enormous and unchanged while having to pay my employees a living wage’?

[magical_panda]

This is all over an $8 minimum wage?
It should be much, much higher!

$8 should have been the minimum wage 10 years ago.

[xyxox]

Go to the link and look at the receipt. This guy is a tax cheat because the fee goes on after sales tax.

[ultraviolet_uk]

I’ve just done the math. If this is going to cost him $10,000, it means that each of his six employees is working over 46 hours per week at minimum wage for 48 weeks per year.

Now that is what I call hard work that deserves decent pay.