NYC Restaurants Want To Pass Minimum Wage Hikes On To Diners

NEW YORK, NY — New York City restaurants want diners to help them pay for rising wages and rents. The owners of dozens of restaurants asked city officials Wednesday to let them add a surcharge to patrons' bills, saying they desperately need the money to make up for recent minimum wage hikes.

"If you want to support local restaurants and staff, allow us the option of using a clearly disclosed surcharge to generate the revenue to simply survive," restaurateurs wrote in an open letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio.

A decades-old city rule prohibits restaurants from imposing surcharges, a practice that's allowed in many other cities and other parts of New York State, according to the New York City Hospitality Alliance, a trade group.

Examples of barred surcharges include administrative charges, a "living wage fee" and certain mandatory gratuities, according to a Department of Consumer Affairs form. There's even a place on the city's website for New Yorkers to complain about restaurant surcharges.

The minimum wage for tipped food service workers in the city rose to $8 at the end of last year for businesses with 10 or fewer employees and $8.65 for those with at least 11 employees. That's up from $7.50 in the prior year.

Restaurateurs say those recent hikes are driving up their costs of doing business, forcing them to lay off workers, cut hours, increase menu prices and even close restaurants.

"We know these wage increases were not intended to have these consequences, but the full-service
restaurants in NYC are now closing in unprecedented numbers, leaving vacant storefronts and limited
service businesses that create fewer jobs and do not offer the renowned dining experiences that help draw
millions of visitors to our city," the restaurateurs wrote in their letter.

The restaurants that signed on include Bryant Park Grill, 5 Napkin Burger, Nobu and Duke's.

The option of imposing a surcharge could help support struggling eateries and reduce wage disparities between tipped front-of-house workers, like servers and bartenders, and kitchen cooks, who cannot earn tips, the Hospitality Alliance says.

San Francisco allows businesses to impose surcharges to cover the cost of abiding with a city law that requires employers to cover employee health care costs.

New York officials have reportedly not taken a stance on the idea.

"We recognize that hospitality is a vital industry in New York City," mayoral spokeswoman Jane Meyer told the New York Daily News. "We’re aware of the proposal and haven’t taken a position on the measure."

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