By now most people have heard that many popular restaurants in New York City have abolished tipping, and raised their menu prices by up to 40 percent, which now gives them the ability to pay everyone on staff more and provide full-time health coverage. Some restaurants tried a different tactic, including Brooklyn pizzeria Franny’s. They announced that checks would soon include a line item that reads “3% surcharge for Obamacare,” then quickly reversed that decision after complaints. Now they will raise all their prices, despite their concerns this means “putting $22 pizza on the menu.”
A manager at Franny’s compared the line-item to a fuel surcharge. When gas prices go up, delivery companies will often charge their clients a percentage of their order to offset the extra expenditure. Citing Obamacare’s inflated health-insurance premiums and requirement that eateries like Franny’s insure their full-time staff, restaurants have asked their guests to pay.
Restaurants like Franny’s operate with razor-thin margins, which is so often the reason that the food and beverage workforce does not have employee-sponsored health care. This a very transparent way of letting the public know how the new health-care law affects a small operation like theirs.
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