New charge on dinner tab "Health Fee"

[MrLabGuy]

This is in response to San Francisco's health care mandates. Look for it in a town near you. Especially with what is brewing in Congress. San Francisco's leadership looks a lot like the Congress and Senate. Where do you think Nanci Pelosi is from...Yep you guessed it.

Dinner tabs: Restaurants add employee charge to dinner tabs - chicagotribune.com

[motordavid]

Airline bag fees are not considered "revenue" by the IRS, and thus are not subject to
that special 7.5% fed tax, and are not lumped into an airlines revenue line...
Maybe the restaurant(s) thinks they can slide those "health care" fees under the
income line?

What a fiasco, this ala'carte line item bs. Only in America. We deserve what we
get...

I wouldn't hire Nancy to soap down one of my m'cycles, but I don't think she is
behind the restaurants' move.

[JCL]

Originally Posted by motordavid

What a fiasco, this a la'carte line item bs.

I would use it as a reason to walk out of a restaurant that tried to charge it.

That said, the article is about additional charges in restaurants, not about health care. I can't imagine many customers would be happier if there was a charge on a restaurant bill called the "elect a new government surcharge" to cover donations to a certain politcal party.

I am not sure why this is a political issue for this particular forum, or is in any way related to health insurance.

[MrLabGuy]

Originally Posted by JCL

I am not sure why this is a political issue for this particular forum, or is in any way related to health insurance.

The fee is listed under HEALTH which the restaurant is trying to recoup because big San Francisco government is mandating what they offer in Health Care over and above what other cities and county's require. This extra expense is being passed on to the consumer or at least they are trying to pass it on. My guess it calling it a Health fee is more of a protest. They could just raise the cost of the food to cover the expense but then the patrons would just think they were raising the prices.

It's just another example of what happens when the government tries to help us and save us money requiring businesses to do extra anything. They pass it on to the consumer or pack up shop and leave which costs jobs.

They just don't get the fact that business owners are not always fat cats stowing away piles of money. Eventually ALL of these services the government puts in place for our so called benefit cost US the taxpayers money. There is no secret money tree where these services are magically paid for...Oh yeah. It's called the treasury department.

[GoVols!]

All I can say is that if/when I see this, I will never go back to that restaurant and would seriously consider subtracting that amount from the tip I leave.

[JCL]

Originally Posted by GoVols!

All I can say is that if/when I see this, I will never go back to that restaurant and would seriously consider subtracting that amount from the tip I leave.

Subtracting the tip hits the server, not the restaurant owner. Can't imagine that the server is directly receiving the surcharge. Just walk out.