Restaurant Fees Are Spiraling Out of Control

Additional fees on purchases are so common these days that most of us pay them without actually paying them much attention. “It is what it is,” we say as we cough up an additional $30 to check our luggage on a plane. “What are you gonna do?” we think when we buy tickets to a concert that charges an extra $10 convenience fee even though there is no other way to buy the ticket that might be less convenient. Cable bills and cell phone bills are never short on mysterious surcharges and have you looked at the additional costs when you order from a food delivery app? They may as well list one of the fees as a “Because We Can Fee” because, well, they can. For years, restaurants seldom had any additional charges on the bill other than tax and the requisite tip, but that’s changing. 

Credit card fees take a cut

The most familiar charge on a restaurant bill is a credit card processing fee. Credit card companies charge vendors each time a customer uses their card. The cost can be anywhere from 1.5% to 3.5% of the total spent and if you’re wondering why some places don’t accept American Express, it’s because they charge on the higher end of that range. One would think that a restaurant would eat that cost as part of doing business, but lately, the restaurants are pushing that cost right back to customers. They might offer a “discount” for paying cash, but it’s not really a discount if it’s the original price, is it? Worse, some restaurants make servers pay the fee for whatever they were tipped. That means if a server gets a $20 tip, up to 70 cents will come out of their paycheck. That might seem like a small price to pay, but it adds up. A server who makes $100 a shift can end up paying $70 a month because their customers didn’t pay with cash. 

Resort fees, kitchen fees, tea fees, and more

Restaurants in resort towns are no strangers to fees. Having been to South Beach more than once, I’ve seen sales tax, Miami Beach sales tax, service fee, gratuity, and then still be given a receipt with a blank line for an additional tip. Unless a restaurant explains it on the check or menu, no one knows what the service fee and gratuity is going to, but I guess those beach umbrellas aren’t paying for themselves. Some restaurants have taken to adding a “kitchen fee” that goes to back of the house workers in an effort to lessen the gap of financial inequity between tipped and non-tipped employees. One might see a 2.85% “employee recruitment and retention” fee that I suppose pays for the cost of hiring new staff and paying for pizza parties to keep the existing ones placated. There can be fees that help cover health insurance, setting up 401(k) plans, or the cost of the plastic container you asked for when you couldn’t finish your pasta primavera. I have even been told of a $3.50 “tea fee” at a Chinese restaurant that pays for, you guessed it, tea, whether you ordered it or not. 

What the heck is a PUF?

Other fees are less than clear. You might see something called a “public user fee” (sometimes abbreviated as PUF) that could be as low as 1%, but what is that? Well, it might be that the business is charging customers for the use and upkeep of their parking lot, or the roads built to get there, or some other big-ticket structural component. It doesn't come from or go to the local, state, or federal government, but rather it's generally imposed by the property's developer and passed on to a business that in turn pawns it off on their shoppers or diners, who likely won't even notice. The fees are getting out of control and customers are tired of it. 

No one should have any qualms about asking for details about the extra costs and they should also only be tipping on the food and drink totals. Servers are growing frustrated with fees too because the more a customer pays in fees, the less likely they are to leave a decent tip. The only surcharge that most servers can fully support is the one that a Georgia restaurant recently came up with that supposedly charges $50 for unruly kids. Now, that’s a fee I can get behind.