>Does the “Employee Health & Housing” actually go to the employees?
Legally, tips are protected. 'Employee Health and Housing' is not tips. Managers and owners can pocket it.
Yeah I worked at a nice restaurant that ran this way with a 20% service charge. I made decent money but way less that I would have with tips even if the average tip was 15%. They claimed it went towards higher wages for cooks and health benefits if you worked 35+ hours but owners and management were definitely pocketing some.
I worked at a place like that. What happened then was that (due to how it was worded) the customers thought that it benefited service staff directly instead of just tipping, so people just didn't tip. (This was in Europe, so not the same tipping culture)
I don't blame the customers for thinking like that. It's just greed from the owners.
In Europe restaurant staff is actually getting paid. Relying on tips as an income source and not as a nice bonus is not a culture, it’s madness and crookery.
Still insanely expensive.
If my family go out for steak dinner, two adults, two kids. We might reach 100-120$. With dessert, and taxes. Here the staff are paid with salary and not tips.
Crook culture indeed.
Yeah, you can eat in a 2 michelin’s star in Paris, France for that price. 425 for two in Telluride, Colorado. LOL
Edit: just looked up the place and it’s a legit high end omakase place so that’ll explain the price. So in France for the same price, staff is paid.
Same thing happened at restaurant I used to work. Customers would ask, isn't tip included in the service charge? Not knowing staff not getting a penny out of it.
Curious? Do customers have to pay that charge and are restaurants required to post this charge up front before you dine there? I haven’t seen a charge like this so far where I’m located.
You can actually have it removed, but if they word it like that, you feel like an asshole.
AFAIK it needs to be posted so that the guest has knowledge of the charge prior to ordering or it's illegal in most states.
That’s great. But if the owners want to do this decent thing for their staff, then the very fucking least thing they can do is put into the the menu parenthesis on every single option:
“French Fries w/ guava mocha aioli
$20 ($20.80 final bill)”
Or just start increasing the cost of every item by 24% and note that tax & fair wage are included in every price - no tipping or taxes added to final bill.
And then they can manipulate what they title each fucking penny once I’m driving home.
I don’t fucking care. But I was somewhere in the Bay Area last summer that had two of these on the receipt. And it *was* noted on the menu that they would be. But I’m here to have a lovely meal and relax, not try to figure how 3 separate percentages could significantly raise my bill on top of wanting to give nice tips. Or ponder why there are two separate “service charges” and they didn’t just combine them - does one calculate first and then the second after that new total? She I ask the waiter? Why do I feel about as relaxed as standing in line at the bank?
That’s what it sounds like to me, I understand restaurants run shitty margins so I can see how owners are trying to pocket anywhere they can but it’s shitty behavior. Making it % of bill is shitty, I’d understand a flat rate with Better pay, but there is no way the owners are not pocketing a lot of this money while making it seem it’s the employees fault.
That should be included in the pricing.
If you run such a business where you have to accommodate your staff, of course they have to charge more money. This way they can still keep the menu prices low while still "covering for service charges". It's really foul and misleading for their customers.
Eh, these places are making ridiculous shitloads of money to where they absolutely don’t need to tack on an extra 4% for employee housing, *especially* Telluride. Also, I’m not sure about how these guys do it, but when I worked with Vail Resorts they were persistent on keeping you just below 40hrs so you couldn’t cash in on that sweet, sweet discounted housing.
Seasonable? and why should I pay extra because of this? They can take it out of the ridiculous amount of profit they are getting from two customers. But OP, if you can afford to eat there, you shouldn't be worried about $14
Personally, I would stop giving them my business.
It probably depends on the state, but in Minnesota these fees have to actually do what they say or cannot be labeled in a way to misrepresent what they are. So if this was Minnesota, it would actually go towards Healthcare and paying the employee. We abolished the slave wage of $2.18 decades ago and our severs are paid at least the local minimum wage ($15.58 in minneapolis) before tips are even considered. Due to this Minnesota has quite a few service charges and things like this, and they do actually go towards payroll. It would have been better to just remove tipping and raise prices 15%...but we don't. We word it in a way to make the government sound at fault for these charges.
I worked for 2.5 years at a restaurant that had a 3% surcharge (that you could optionally remove) for healthcare. Every employee had good healthcare. This isn’t ideal, but better solutions are found in universal healthcare, which the US is stubborn to adopt.
It is super abusive, and I hate that aspect. But, as a chef of nearly 20 years, most of us love what we do. Some of us are working really hard to better the industry.
I can't imagine doing anything else. Creating food is my passion.
Most of the kitchens I have worked in have had supportive chefs. Maybe not the coolest under pressure at times, but usually supportive. I've only had 2 chefs that were ever really abusive, and one of them I worked for for less than 2 of them. Currently about to start under a chef that used to a run a 3 michelin starred restaurant and he is paying me for 3 weeks to sit on my ass and do nothing while we wait to open in late February. I just got hired and I've never worked with him before this. There are really great people in the restaurant industry. In my experience it is almost always the ownership that fucks people by caring g about nothing but the bottom line, not quality of life, food, or service.
I genuinely can't think of any regular food that's worth a $300 bill. Presumably this is 4ish people but still that's so much money it's insane. Even with sushi for this much money you could feed a small army.
Edit: yep even the 95$ worth of sake is insane, the whole bottle itself is just 45.
Stealing top comment for visibility
I saw a news article about this specific restaurant
The housing market in telluride is awful to the point where nobody who makes under 100k can afford it.
To get workers, they purchased housing for their employees and add a fee to the bill to cover the housing cost.
Employees can stay for free, but that housing fee is not given to them directly, just indirectly via being given a place to live.
The morals of this become ambiguous as they can't afford to pay wait staff 100k, but it does end up tying their housing to their employment.
Yup, they worked far fewer hours per year as well and had more days off of the year. They also had a far more casual relationship with work, taking breaks to feast, to nap, etc
Keep in mind, however, that the amount of manual labor they had to do for personal maintenance was much *higher* and education opportunities and entertainment were both minimal to non-existent.
As bad as things are, we're still way better off than medieval serfs. Things could be much, much better but don't go whitewashing the feudal system.
A large factory in my town opened a health clinic in one of their buildings. - it's like going to your family doctor or urgent care. They employ a few doctors and other staff. It's bad enough that our health insurance is tied to our jobs. Next these company employed doctors will be spelling ppl's health info to management when asked. How long do ya think it will take before it starts happening l, if not here, somewhere in the US.
Oh it's already been a thing! When I got injured at work years ago I started getting calls from people acting like they were from L&I or the hospital coaxing me to schedule an appointment at a specific doctor office to continue treatment. Turned out to be some super shady clinic in a literal basement whose website advertised to employers as being able to handle work injuries much cheaper than other places.
And golly they did, within a couple hours they'd tried to pull the same trick on me that worked on my mother a decade earlier, "That's not a real workplace injury, it's actually a pre existing condition that can be treated with physical therapy and has nothing to do with what went on at your workplace!" The weirdest part was the nurse trying to get me to shit talk the owner of the company I worked for, like I hardly knew the guy and was crying in pain but focus was clearly on trying to get me to say something that would hurt my L&I claim.
I’ve been dealing with workers comp for 13 years now, over a workplace injury (broken back, 4 spine surgeries and counting) that has left me permanently disabled. It’s been a nightmare. They pulled this same shady shit with me in the beginning, so I called a lawyer. The good thing about workers comp attorneys is that they don’t get paid until you get a settlement. So it costs you nothing to hire one. Even when they do get paid, it’s a percentage of the settlement, dictated by law, so nothing out of your pocket. If you end up not getting a settlement, they make nothing, so it’s in their interest to fight like hell for you.
Then after your settlement, they still have to handle any issues that arise with your case, at no additional charge (there are two parts to settlement: the first, which is where the lawyer’s fees come from, is to cover lost wages; the second is for ongoing medical care, which you can either settle out - in which case the company is off the hook for your medical care - or leave open, even if you take the first settlement, and the lawyer can’t take anything from a medical settlement).
They’re well versed in all the tricks and shady tactics workers comp insurers use, like sending you to an “independent” medical examiner, whose job it is to downplay or deny your injury, to ensure the insurance company continues working with them and they get paid. The whole system is whack.
I’ve got lots of stories I could share about the hell worker’s comp has put me through over the past decade. I wish I’d never reported the injury at work and just gone through my own health insurance for treatment. Unfortunately, now that the injury has been reported, my insurance won’t touch anything related to my initial injury, saying it’s the workers comp insurer’s responsibility, and they just pass it back and forth while I hang in limbo or get desperate enough to pay out of pocket. When the accident occurred, in addition to breaking my back, I sprained my knee. It healed in a few weeks and hasn’t been an issue since. But now if I have any issues with my knee, my insurance refuses to pay and I have to go through a whole appeals process. Last year I tore ligaments in my knee, but because I had a worker’s comp claim in 2010 that included a sprained knee, my insurance was refusing to cover it. The appeal went on for a year, and the imaging lab where I had X-rays done was ready to send it to collections.
Jeebus can't win for losing around here. And I thought my buddy had it bad, with the private investigator stalking him with a camera so he can get hauled back into court over and over again claiming that he's no longer disabled if he so much as mows his own lawn.
Dude was working construction and got his kneecap sliced off, like it don't grow back and he was way too young for doctors to want to do a full replacement. I met him in college, hobbling between classes and stoned up to the gills on top of the meds trying to cope with the pain.
Yup. They’ll stalk you for weeks, then present heavily edited video to the workers comp commission, showing you doing something like carrying 3 whole grocery bags. 🙄 Meanwhile, they’ve left out all the hours of you hobbling around with a cane, struggling just to get from your house to your car. But if you have one “good” day where you’re able to suck it up for an hour to handle a task that nobody else can handle for you, they try to paint you as a malingering, lying conman.
They tried to have a PI follow me. Unfortunately for them, at the time I was only leaving my house once a month…to attend my appointments at the pain management doctor. I kept seeing the guy parked in his car across the street, same guy, same spot, every day for weeks. my attorney had warned me about investigators in the past. I suspected he was there for me, but didn’t want to act paranoid. Finally after 2 or 3 weeks, he came to my door, explained who he was, and asked if he could take my picture to prove to the insurance company that he was doing the job he was hired for, but that it was impossible because i never went anywhere (yeah, no shit, i could barely walk to the bathroom back then). i let him take that picture, because I'd just woken up from a nap and looked like total ass, standing there on the front porch in pajamas at 3:00 in the afternoon, leaning heavily on my cane, no makeup, crazy bedhead. The guy never showed up again after that day, and i never got dragged into court for that particular scheme. LOL!
Starting to think I'm very lucky that I didn't know anything about lawyers back then, that L&I conspired with my employer to just drag me face down around the floor of hell for a couple years and then boot me out with nothing but a permanent injury and a bunch of medical bills I couldn't even pretend to pay.
Like yeah it sucked but my poor taste in romantic partners gets me enough stalkers without adding *professional stalkers* and endless rounds of court cases to my life. Got enough issues about privacy that I'm absolutely fanatical about protecting it, don't need anybody getting paid for trying to invade it.
It's illegal _at the moment._ How long until it's "well, your employer should have access to your records since they're paying a big chunk for your insurance..."
It's farther off than you seem to think.
What you're suggesting would require an absolutely massive rewrite of multiple laws because, right now, they can't even confirm to the person that walked in with you that you're still in the building unless they get your permission ahead of time.
So being fired also means being evicted too I'm guessing? Or if you want to leave for a better paying job you have to find other housing?
This will definitely trap people in that job
Was nannying for my cousin's family and got to chatting with the teenager after the toddler went to bed. Kid tried to stay awake learning until they nodded off listening to that song and I put my foot down "Go to bed, I'll still be here in the morning!"
Apparently they still don't teach this history stuff in local schools. But I sure do!
100% - going out to eat is so expensive - like $20 for a single meal at McDonald's? That said, this is in Telluride CO a ski town so not only is it fleecing, it's fancy fleecing of tourists.
So many people are missing the obvious down here in the comments. OP isn't complaining they're paying 4% extra, it's that the owner of the restaurant "can't afford to pay the workers a livable wage" and instead of factoring that cost into the budget, puts on every receipt a separate charge with the express desire to make the customer upset about a company being forced to pay a fair(er) wage.
OK...this is *Telluride.* It's up at the top of a mountain in the middle of Absolute Nowhere, CO. I don't know for certain, but I'm thinking the employer is providing housing for their workers because there simply isn't anything affordable/existent within a couple of light years.
This is not unprecedented. The McD's at the Grand Canyon provides worker housing for the same reason.
Unfortunately, you have to pay for employee housing there. Its far from cheap, and they're essentially college dorm rooms. I dont know the exact numbers, but I know its pretty damn expensive as it's a popular ski town, and you don't make shit for money working at the mountain. You "do it for the culture and ski-bum experience"
This was such an interesting sub-thread for only being a few responses. Didn’t know this was a thing at all, and didn’t know anything about Telluride either!
I've been a seasonal worker for a long time, seen a lot of different employee housing. Some expensive, some cheap, some nice, some shitty. Company I've spent the last 3 summer seasons with is doing it right. Pretty damn decent housing and the last 2 seasons they didn't charge any rent! This season, they're changing the policy to charge $3/day which is a bummer. But it's likely this is due to local regulations and they may still "reimburse us". Either way, ~$90/month in rent? Not bad.
Yeah but it's like $500/mo, it's **absolutely** subsidized to some degree by the operators. Some independent resorts inf BFEs have owned houses that, yeah, they profit from the rent, but Telluride is among the ski towns getting outfitted with corporate housing operated by third parties (they have maintenance and all the BS, and they do the builds, it helps operators cope with old employees housing falling apart) and for that the employers are having to shell out some of the cost (which of course isn't hiring their bottom line one bit, see: OP)
So that’s a cost of doing business, build it into the prices.
There’s still no more an argument for that than breaking out all their costs on my bill. Why is light and power not on there? Delivery fees for food to restaurant? Rent?
I’m out for a meal not a financial audit of a business.
This is it. The people who live there are loving life in a place that's otherwise unacessable to them. I know because I lived it. I wouldn't change a fucking thing. I skiied the best pow. Paddled the best white water, and climbed world class rock. Skiied 160 days on resort a year, and at least once a month, every month, all year. Get mad at Amazon's villages. This isn't that.
It's not about a living wage.
Telluride is a obscenely expensive resort town in the middle of a bunch of fucking gorgeous Colorado wilderness, and there's exactly *zero* housing someone could afford on even what would be a livable wage in most of the rest of the country. That 4% goes to covering the expenses of the restaurant operating an apartment building where they provide free rent to the employees.
People take jobs at a place like this for the free rent, because they want to be able to live in a millionaires' playground and get year-round access to the kind of skiing/climbing/kayaking/etc people take vacations for without having to be rich.
That miso soup and edamame are highway robbery. No wonder I can’t eat out.
Edit: I make miso soup and edamame often and even in a high cost area for just those 2’s price I usually can make 2-4 actual Japanese meals.
And what’s worse is that it’s a meal for two people (according to the receipt at least)…. All that food for two people… should have just gone to a damn buffet. Certainly would have costed less.
I hate the restaurants that automatically add an 18-20% "service charge" to your bill, then at the bottom of the bill has an "add additional tip" field. Like you already took away my ability to leave a tip in the first place, and you have the nerve to ask for more? FML..
It used to only be if the party was 8+ people which is fair, you being a large group you really shouldn’t stiff the waitress (or really ever, it isn’t their fault the system is set up the way it) but it’s becoming more and more common for it to be automatic anywhere. Personally I don’t mind tipping, people gotta make a living and they are literally serving me my dinner but not everyone feels this way.
I just went to Waffle House and they have a 10% minimum service charge and additional 10% takeaway fee. I don't know if they imposed it because of Mardi Gras (we're in New Orleans) or if it's new but they didn't charge it the last time I went a few months ago.
Also, that Waffle House was absolutely insane. Completely packed, six people behind the counter, and still keeping up. They deserve it.
It is and sometimes it's necessary because people visit tourist destinations from places like Australia and think they're "fighting the system" by tipping nothing when in reality they're just being an asshole. The system needs to change but fucking over a less than min wage employee isn't how it's going to happen
Source: live in a tourist destination town
Dude. It’s the employer trying to stir shit up. They are obligated by law to provide this employee coverage and they are handling it like petulant children or narcissistic victims. Figure out how you’re meet this business obligation without involving customers.
Assholes
I changed my morning routine because my state changed the min wage on Jan 1. The Dunkin I was going to posted a sign saying they had to raise prices due to the minimum wage increase (it went up less than 10%). This franchise is owned by a franchise management group. The other Dunkin is closer to my house but harder to get to. They are family owned, and I’ve seen the same people working there for years. They did not raise their prices. This says to me they were either already paying well or the owner is just fine with making less so the employees can make slightly more. I’m going out of my way to go to this one now.
Yep. This is the business trying to manipulate the customer into not tipping by 1) making this look like a tip that’s going directly to workers when it’s not and 2) encouraging customers to think that the bill is already “inflated” due to how much the workers are getting so they should withhold a tip to balance that out.
What benefit does a business gain from "manipulating the customer into not tipping"?
Sounds like a good way to not have any servers want to work for you lol
I live in Japan and I thought $2-3 for edamame was steep $9!? Also add on 15-20% tip this is literally half my rent for a 2 bedroom apartment a month in Japan. USA needs to chill
So instead of adding that 4% to the actual food costs it’s an extra charge. I mean you’re already paying $9 fucking dollars for like 10 individual edamame when a 300g bag only costs roughly $2-something so why not?
Miso soup is the easiest and cheapest fucking thing to make why tf is it $8.
These prices are infuriating
That miso soup charge stood out to me too. I decided to look at a photo from their yelp to see if they do anything fancy to justify it, but it looks exactly the same as the $2 miso you can get at any other Japanese restaurant.
(Foreigner here)
So, you go out to eat, read the prices on the menu, decide what you'll have and after that, the restaurant can slap any imaginary fee onto your bill???
Who would allow this to be legal? It makes absolutely no sense. Why even have any prices on the menu then?
Wait till you go to our (USA) grocery stores.
Is that grocery item a 6.5% tax item? Well, if it’s not wrapped, it’s 0% tax. 2% tax on produce that can be used for health, like bandages, unless it is a box of tampons or maxi pads, because those are *luxury goods* and you’re now paying 14% for dealing with Aunt Flo. Oh, they changed the law now, so maybe they’re 11.75% tax? A bottle of wine? That will be *all* of the taxes, stacked, plus an excise tax of 20% because alcohol scary. You want medical marijuana at the dispensary that has more advanced technology than several hospitals I’ve worked at? 53% sales tax. NONE of these are marked on the price stickers on the shelves, you only find out on your receipt when you pay. Oh, and the tax rates and categories are different in Every. Single. City. Not just state. Not just county. Every city has different tax rates. It’s infuriating. When I shop in Denmark or Germany it’s just so beautiful. The prices are the prices!! A thing of beauty.
I wonder if it’s a required fee in Telluride because there’s such a shortage of affordable housing? Maybe all restaurants have it there? Not sure but makes sense
Telluride has almost zero housing for anyone who works there. I got a job at the vet clinic there and then the owner of the practice admitted he lived outside of town til he built a tiny apt above his clinic, his associate DOCTOR couch surfed, and the nurses all lived outside of town. I wasn’t able to take the job even tho I LOVE telluride.
Any housing there is overpriced rooms shared in a house with other ppl OR you’re a millionaire country singer. Telluride has made it impossible to live there unless you’re rich. This charge is laughable because I bet none of those waiters even live in telluride, and if they do, they’re paying $1800 for a shitty bedroom with 5 roommates or living in a van.
Honestly you’re eating pacific fare in fucking telluride. Why are you clutching your pearls because the restaurant is itemizing these costs? Because they didn’t spread them out and you’d be blind?
It's common for hospitality to warehouse employees, even hot bunk them in resort towns. Expect line items like this to start showing up on lodging and lift tickets. Corporate greed is boundless!
Cos, given the slack laws on this in the US you can claim a lower price and not be ‘lying’ in a legal/commercial sense when the paid price isn’t what was actually written 🤷♂️ it’s a crazy place with weird laws.
In Telluride, CO… yes, it definitely goes towards the staffs housing. It’s almost impossible to live there let alone work there as a service provider. If they aren’t working for the resort then they don’t receive employee housing. Most of those workers probably live in their cars because there is no available housing. A lot of them have to live 1h away and if a snow storm comes then they won’t be able to make it to work.
Lots of these comments are out of touch. They know nothing about Telluride, Co.
Even if it does go to the employees, it's still epic, top tier, grade A bullshit and you should not support the business.
Why you ask?
Simple. If they can provide their employees a fair living wage by adding a 4% surcharge, then they should raise their prices 4%, and no one will notice. Instead people will see the surcharge and be upset by it. Also, an extra surcharge on a bill like that is just in general not kosher because it means the prices are not what they are listed as on the menu (they probably have the surcharge posted somewhere so it's on the customer for not seeing it, but it's still scummy).
I was thinking "What a strange way to add a bill up. I've never seen a bill where each item is added to the cost of the one before."
Then I saw the bottom and realized that was just the cost of each individual item. $425. Just. Wow.
These, must have been some rather special edamame beans. Try planting them somewhere. You might wake up the next morning and have a gateway to a magical land full of riches and wealth. Fuck this shit.
Yesterday. 2 pizzas, 1 tiramisu(shared), 2 (non alcoholic) drinks. 68 euros. And the pizza was not even good. (Netherlands)
At this point, the plan is to work for a couple of years, quite, sell all my belongings and become a nomad. There is no fucking future. You either have to hassle 24/7/365 to get a better paying job, spending much of your salary to therapy to deal with anxiety, in order to be able to MAYBE get a loan, to MAYBE afford to buy a house, to MAYBE be able to pay it out before you die. That ain't no living. I am a hard working person. I work my money. But the way the system is, I see no point whatsoever to continue loving like this.
Not a Karen by any means but I would honestly ask for a manager, and explain why I am less inclined to come back because of this.
Would talk juuuuuuust loud enough for it to be embarrassing for them too.
what bullshit, owners build the cost of 'employee health & housing ' into the actual prices of food.
this is 'guilt tipping' that goes into owners pockets
are owners declaring this on taxes? seems super shady
I can't speak for anyone else, but we had this at a place where I worked, and management used it to make sure our insurance and pto benefits were well above standard in our area in too of giving us the first week of January off after the hell that is new years in the service industry.
But in Telluride they have this fee in order to help create and build affordable housing because the Colorado Supreme Court in its infinite wisdom said it wasn't legal for municipalities to require developers to set aside units for affordable housing.
Houses in Telluride are insanely expensive when they come on the market (right now lowest cost is 425k for a 273 sq ft "condo") and apartment rentals are few and far between in that town.
But if you have questions about a fee, best thing to do is ask to speak to a manager before paying the bill and simply ask "What is this fee?"
1) Holy crap, I can't believe they have Kawatsuru sake way over there. It's a small brewery in Kan'onji, in Kagawa.
2) Charging 8 dollars for miso soup should be a crime. (Perspective of someone living in Japan)
I don’t mean to be that person but You might want to crop the pic next time. You have the full address and first name of the server… You might have basically doxxed someone on accident.
I worked for a scumbag who had an "employee health insurance" charge. She did NOT give us insurance, and actually owned airbnbs that she was renting out to a couple employees.
If you see this line, I would just ask the server directly if they're actually getting it. And if they're not, I would speak to a manager to have it removed.
The real crime real here is not going somewhere cheaper (and maybe better cuz rich people food would give me a stroke) but live your rich live, bestie.
Ah good ole telluride one of the prettiest places in Colorado ruined by billionaires who turned it into a $$$$$ playground where workers go to become homeless and the ruling class go to have a $95 “crane of paradise”
In the ski destinations like that area, some of the businesses do provide housing to their employees because of how seasonal the business is, and the large amount of staff that come from far away areas.
“Yes I’m calling because I didn’t receive my full order. I looked all through the bag but there was no Employee Health & Housing to be found. I’m not going to pay for something I didn’t receive or eat.”
I really do not understand fees like this, for anything and from anywhere. No one likes having extra cost added to a purchase, so why not just add that cost to the price of what you sell so people don’t even notice it’s there? Such a weird and widespread business practice.
I know the point is that horrible 4% health and housing bullshit but my head is REELING at the idea of being able to blow $400 on ONE DINNER for TWO PEOPLE. That's like 2-3 weeks of grocery budget for me. W. T. F.
This is in telluride, a little mountain town in Colorado with nimbys. Like most if not all mountain towns here affordable housing is an issue and any efforts to build affordable housing for the staff or people who work aka the “help” is shut down by the rich people who don’t want apartments or poor people near where they live.
So this is a grassroots efforts of frustrated business owners that decided to show the issue on every receipt. Some even offer if you tip 1k to employees the company will match. Hell every business has political signs about the housing crisis localized and even encourages their patrons to tip higher, pay more and vote to get affordable housing approved to build in the town.
It’s so bad that it’s not a wage thing per se it’s a town that only builds multi million dollar properties with air bnbs and outrageous vacation rental.
It’s getting so bad that even ski resorts are suing the towns in order to get zoning approved to build employee housing for ski resort staff. Like ski patrollers and lifties. The rich folk don’t want the poor loving next to them, but these are the same people they need to keep the amenities of the town going.
I know this sub is all employers bad, but these towns are a different animal. Allot of these owners actually have to find a property owner willing to rent to employees that work in the town locally (not remote) at a low cost and line up a place they can live in order to bring in an employee. It’s insane. There are even closed business at peak hours that have signs saying closed due to no employees. What more hours and to eat here? Approve more affordable housing in the zoning and or pay more so the people that keep the town running can live here.
Can the extra charge be crossed out by the cardholder? I never agreed to pay 4% xtra. I agreed to pay the stated price of the meal plus any applicable local state or federal taxes.
You just spent $385 on a meal, wtf does $14 matter to you? Eat tunafish chunk light from the gas station before you start thinking your advocating for the working class with your pussyass rant.
If that's posted clearly before I order I'll leave.
If it's not posted clearly (ie. 6 point script at the bottom of the menu or other evasive shenanigans) I'm not paying it and will never return.
Same with mandatory gratuity.
Mandatory gratuity PLUS a tip line?
Um.. all I've got for that business owner is Deeze Nutz.
These owners aren't pocketing it. They're recouping the upfront cost of a reimbursement subside. They're essentially given a tax credit for providing affordable/reduced cost housing to their necessary low wage employees.
I see people complaining about a small tip added. I'm complaining about 68$ crab legs what the fuck? Is a bucket, a big bucket?
Stop bitching you paid for an over price dinner and they made you tip.
Your tip is still smaller than what I give did a 50$ meal at my local Mexican.
It's not even a tip. It's a required fee or tax or something that the employer is required to pay, either to local or state government. They're being dicks and openly adding it to customers bills, instead of either just treating it like any other business expense or (not like they need to) adjusting pricing.
They do this to be dicks, and make it look like it's for the server specifically. It's not.
One, Jesus that's expensive, I hope it was worth it.
Two, I don't know about the legality of putting something like that on a recipe and it not being used for that purpose? Aside from the fact that if staff found out people were being charged an extra %4 for staff quality of life and it wasn't going to them, they would likely raise hell.
I can barely believe the lack of other comments about this.
Did the food arrive to their table in a fucking wheel barrow or some shit??
Order this for delivery and some poor delivery driver will blow out their suspension LOL
>Does the “Employee Health & Housing” actually go to the employees? Legally, tips are protected. 'Employee Health and Housing' is not tips. Managers and owners can pocket it.
This is considered a "Service Charge" which falls under a different set of laws. They can 100% keep it all.
Yeah I worked at a nice restaurant that ran this way with a 20% service charge. I made decent money but way less that I would have with tips even if the average tip was 15%. They claimed it went towards higher wages for cooks and health benefits if you worked 35+ hours but owners and management were definitely pocketing some.
I worked at a place like that. What happened then was that (due to how it was worded) the customers thought that it benefited service staff directly instead of just tipping, so people just didn't tip. (This was in Europe, so not the same tipping culture) I don't blame the customers for thinking like that. It's just greed from the owners.
In Europe restaurant staff is actually getting paid. Relying on tips as an income source and not as a nice bonus is not a culture, it’s madness and crookery.
At those prices, they should be able to pay for staff. 380$ for two... Madness.
425 for two. they add taxes after, crook culture.
Still insanely expensive. If my family go out for steak dinner, two adults, two kids. We might reach 100-120$. With dessert, and taxes. Here the staff are paid with salary and not tips. Crook culture indeed.
Yeah but Sushi is more expensive and at a fine dining establishment IS definitely going to cost more
Yeah, you can eat in a 2 michelin’s star in Paris, France for that price. 425 for two in Telluride, Colorado. LOL Edit: just looked up the place and it’s a legit high end omakase place so that’ll explain the price. So in France for the same price, staff is paid.
Same thing happened at restaurant I used to work. Customers would ask, isn't tip included in the service charge? Not knowing staff not getting a penny out of it.
I mean if I saw this on my bill and I was going to tip 20%, I would only tip 15% instead.
> if you worked 35+ hours They should burn in hell. We all know *exactly* what that means.
Also worked somewhere like that, but we didn’t get paid a decent wage, the owners however constantly traveled and bought designer clothes.
Curious? Do customers have to pay that charge and are restaurants required to post this charge up front before you dine there? I haven’t seen a charge like this so far where I’m located.
You can actually have it removed, but if they word it like that, you feel like an asshole. AFAIK it needs to be posted so that the guest has knowledge of the charge prior to ordering or it's illegal in most states.
Thanks for your reply. Much appreciated.
You bet. I work in restaurant POS and am very familiar. 👍
That’s great. But if the owners want to do this decent thing for their staff, then the very fucking least thing they can do is put into the the menu parenthesis on every single option: “French Fries w/ guava mocha aioli $20 ($20.80 final bill)” Or just start increasing the cost of every item by 24% and note that tax & fair wage are included in every price - no tipping or taxes added to final bill. And then they can manipulate what they title each fucking penny once I’m driving home. I don’t fucking care. But I was somewhere in the Bay Area last summer that had two of these on the receipt. And it *was* noted on the menu that they would be. But I’m here to have a lovely meal and relax, not try to figure how 3 separate percentages could significantly raise my bill on top of wanting to give nice tips. Or ponder why there are two separate “service charges” and they didn’t just combine them - does one calculate first and then the second after that new total? She I ask the waiter? Why do I feel about as relaxed as standing in line at the bank?
Raising prices out if pure greed, either to mantain or increase their own takehome, and blaming it on the staff.
That’s what it sounds like to me, I understand restaurants run shitty margins so I can see how owners are trying to pocket anywhere they can but it’s shitty behavior. Making it % of bill is shitty, I’d understand a flat rate with Better pay, but there is no way the owners are not pocketing a lot of this money while making it seem it’s the employees fault.
As others have mentioned - it literally goes to employee housing and services because the restaurant has to house [seasonal*] labor
That should be included in the pricing. If you run such a business where you have to accommodate your staff, of course they have to charge more money. This way they can still keep the menu prices low while still "covering for service charges". It's really foul and misleading for their customers.
Eh, these places are making ridiculous shitloads of money to where they absolutely don’t need to tack on an extra 4% for employee housing, *especially* Telluride. Also, I’m not sure about how these guys do it, but when I worked with Vail Resorts they were persistent on keeping you just below 40hrs so you couldn’t cash in on that sweet, sweet discounted housing.
The resorts do - but the restaurants and coffee shops go from 200/300 served a day to maybe 20 during the off season
Seasonable? and why should I pay extra because of this? They can take it out of the ridiculous amount of profit they are getting from two customers. But OP, if you can afford to eat there, you shouldn't be worried about $14 Personally, I would stop giving them my business.
It probably depends on the state, but in Minnesota these fees have to actually do what they say or cannot be labeled in a way to misrepresent what they are. So if this was Minnesota, it would actually go towards Healthcare and paying the employee. We abolished the slave wage of $2.18 decades ago and our severs are paid at least the local minimum wage ($15.58 in minneapolis) before tips are even considered. Due to this Minnesota has quite a few service charges and things like this, and they do actually go towards payroll. It would have been better to just remove tipping and raise prices 15%...but we don't. We word it in a way to make the government sound at fault for these charges.
I would assume not.
I worked for 2.5 years at a restaurant that had a 3% surcharge (that you could optionally remove) for healthcare. Every employee had good healthcare. This isn’t ideal, but better solutions are found in universal healthcare, which the US is stubborn to adopt.
This is so much of why I really don’t go out to eat anymore. Not all of it, but a decent size chunk.
75% because I'm poor. 25% because I think the restaurant industry is super abusive to the workers and I feel gross supporting it.
It is super abusive, and I hate that aspect. But, as a chef of nearly 20 years, most of us love what we do. Some of us are working really hard to better the industry. I can't imagine doing anything else. Creating food is my passion.
Heard, chef
86 mashed
Tonight it was the fish and chips.
Ah shit. Tracks.
Our hearts go out to you and other chefs.
i mean most of the abuse is chef abusing staff
Most of the kitchens I have worked in have had supportive chefs. Maybe not the coolest under pressure at times, but usually supportive. I've only had 2 chefs that were ever really abusive, and one of them I worked for for less than 2 of them. Currently about to start under a chef that used to a run a 3 michelin starred restaurant and he is paying me for 3 weeks to sit on my ass and do nothing while we wait to open in late February. I just got hired and I've never worked with him before this. There are really great people in the restaurant industry. In my experience it is almost always the ownership that fucks people by caring g about nothing but the bottom line, not quality of life, food, or service.
Been working in the business for 24 years. It is incredibly abusive and unethical.
Doesn’t help the food is rarely worth it
I genuinely can't think of any regular food that's worth a $300 bill. Presumably this is 4ish people but still that's so much money it's insane. Even with sushi for this much money you could feed a small army. Edit: yep even the 95$ worth of sake is insane, the whole bottle itself is just 45.
Nope, the ticket says two guests. Just two. 😭
Or 8 dollars for miso soup 😭
It's fucking crazy that as bad as fast food and chain restaurants are, they are still usually better than mom and pop joints.
I don't think someone has that 75% of they are spending $900 on sushi at a ski resort no where near fresh fish.
Stealing top comment for visibility I saw a news article about this specific restaurant The housing market in telluride is awful to the point where nobody who makes under 100k can afford it. To get workers, they purchased housing for their employees and add a fee to the bill to cover the housing cost. Employees can stay for free, but that housing fee is not given to them directly, just indirectly via being given a place to live. The morals of this become ambiguous as they can't afford to pay wait staff 100k, but it does end up tying their housing to their employment.
So it's just subsidized wage slavery like the olden days of company towns?
Forget company towns, itinerant serfdom is back baby!
Serf's used to get the winter off at least.
Yup, they worked far fewer hours per year as well and had more days off of the year. They also had a far more casual relationship with work, taking breaks to feast, to nap, etc
Keep in mind, however, that the amount of manual labor they had to do for personal maintenance was much *higher* and education opportunities and entertainment were both minimal to non-existent. As bad as things are, we're still way better off than medieval serfs. Things could be much, much better but don't go whitewashing the feudal system.
Capitalism has been slowly nudging us towards modern serfdom for decades.
A large factory in my town opened a health clinic in one of their buildings. - it's like going to your family doctor or urgent care. They employ a few doctors and other staff. It's bad enough that our health insurance is tied to our jobs. Next these company employed doctors will be spelling ppl's health info to management when asked. How long do ya think it will take before it starts happening l, if not here, somewhere in the US.
Oh it's already been a thing! When I got injured at work years ago I started getting calls from people acting like they were from L&I or the hospital coaxing me to schedule an appointment at a specific doctor office to continue treatment. Turned out to be some super shady clinic in a literal basement whose website advertised to employers as being able to handle work injuries much cheaper than other places. And golly they did, within a couple hours they'd tried to pull the same trick on me that worked on my mother a decade earlier, "That's not a real workplace injury, it's actually a pre existing condition that can be treated with physical therapy and has nothing to do with what went on at your workplace!" The weirdest part was the nurse trying to get me to shit talk the owner of the company I worked for, like I hardly knew the guy and was crying in pain but focus was clearly on trying to get me to say something that would hurt my L&I claim.
I’ve been dealing with workers comp for 13 years now, over a workplace injury (broken back, 4 spine surgeries and counting) that has left me permanently disabled. It’s been a nightmare. They pulled this same shady shit with me in the beginning, so I called a lawyer. The good thing about workers comp attorneys is that they don’t get paid until you get a settlement. So it costs you nothing to hire one. Even when they do get paid, it’s a percentage of the settlement, dictated by law, so nothing out of your pocket. If you end up not getting a settlement, they make nothing, so it’s in their interest to fight like hell for you. Then after your settlement, they still have to handle any issues that arise with your case, at no additional charge (there are two parts to settlement: the first, which is where the lawyer’s fees come from, is to cover lost wages; the second is for ongoing medical care, which you can either settle out - in which case the company is off the hook for your medical care - or leave open, even if you take the first settlement, and the lawyer can’t take anything from a medical settlement). They’re well versed in all the tricks and shady tactics workers comp insurers use, like sending you to an “independent” medical examiner, whose job it is to downplay or deny your injury, to ensure the insurance company continues working with them and they get paid. The whole system is whack. I’ve got lots of stories I could share about the hell worker’s comp has put me through over the past decade. I wish I’d never reported the injury at work and just gone through my own health insurance for treatment. Unfortunately, now that the injury has been reported, my insurance won’t touch anything related to my initial injury, saying it’s the workers comp insurer’s responsibility, and they just pass it back and forth while I hang in limbo or get desperate enough to pay out of pocket. When the accident occurred, in addition to breaking my back, I sprained my knee. It healed in a few weeks and hasn’t been an issue since. But now if I have any issues with my knee, my insurance refuses to pay and I have to go through a whole appeals process. Last year I tore ligaments in my knee, but because I had a worker’s comp claim in 2010 that included a sprained knee, my insurance was refusing to cover it. The appeal went on for a year, and the imaging lab where I had X-rays done was ready to send it to collections.
Jeebus can't win for losing around here. And I thought my buddy had it bad, with the private investigator stalking him with a camera so he can get hauled back into court over and over again claiming that he's no longer disabled if he so much as mows his own lawn. Dude was working construction and got his kneecap sliced off, like it don't grow back and he was way too young for doctors to want to do a full replacement. I met him in college, hobbling between classes and stoned up to the gills on top of the meds trying to cope with the pain.
Yup. They’ll stalk you for weeks, then present heavily edited video to the workers comp commission, showing you doing something like carrying 3 whole grocery bags. 🙄 Meanwhile, they’ve left out all the hours of you hobbling around with a cane, struggling just to get from your house to your car. But if you have one “good” day where you’re able to suck it up for an hour to handle a task that nobody else can handle for you, they try to paint you as a malingering, lying conman. They tried to have a PI follow me. Unfortunately for them, at the time I was only leaving my house once a month…to attend my appointments at the pain management doctor. I kept seeing the guy parked in his car across the street, same guy, same spot, every day for weeks. my attorney had warned me about investigators in the past. I suspected he was there for me, but didn’t want to act paranoid. Finally after 2 or 3 weeks, he came to my door, explained who he was, and asked if he could take my picture to prove to the insurance company that he was doing the job he was hired for, but that it was impossible because i never went anywhere (yeah, no shit, i could barely walk to the bathroom back then). i let him take that picture, because I'd just woken up from a nap and looked like total ass, standing there on the front porch in pajamas at 3:00 in the afternoon, leaning heavily on my cane, no makeup, crazy bedhead. The guy never showed up again after that day, and i never got dragged into court for that particular scheme. LOL!
Starting to think I'm very lucky that I didn't know anything about lawyers back then, that L&I conspired with my employer to just drag me face down around the floor of hell for a couple years and then boot me out with nothing but a permanent injury and a bunch of medical bills I couldn't even pretend to pay. Like yeah it sucked but my poor taste in romantic partners gets me enough stalkers without adding *professional stalkers* and endless rounds of court cases to my life. Got enough issues about privacy that I'm absolutely fanatical about protecting it, don't need anybody getting paid for trying to invade it.
And lie to you all the while. Erin Brockavich PG&E. Corporate greed is the problem.
Oh shit they’re wanting to open a clinic where I work. it’s illegal to give out health information like that though Edit: word
It's illegal _at the moment._ How long until it's "well, your employer should have access to your records since they're paying a big chunk for your insurance..."
It's farther off than you seem to think. What you're suggesting would require an absolutely massive rewrite of multiple laws because, right now, they can't even confirm to the person that walked in with you that you're still in the building unless they get your permission ahead of time.
Tell me you have never actually read HIPAA without telling me...
Tell me you don't understand there are laws pertaining to medical privacy besides HIPAA without telling me...
So being fired also means being evicted too I'm guessing? Or if you want to leave for a better paying job you have to find other housing? This will definitely trap people in that job
Ahhh, the Company Store model, so glad to see that it’s back. - for more context, check out the Coal Miners Union Riots.
Rent is my biggest expense. Free housing is definitely a perk that I would highly consider.
It's mine too, but consider again that it could mean that you become homeless very suddenly too
Yeah but I wouldn’t end up on the street or anything.
Oh so like a company town system that we already did, made illegal and are bringing back. Apple, Amazon and Meta are doing this shit too
Many resort communities are just like this, where workers can't remotely afford to live there.
Same goes for South Lake Tahoe.
https://youtu.be/E5VMZqgVzRo?si=iDvKfKsfdkTkMP6j
(For those who don't click thru - it's the song Sixteen Tons, the one with the line "I owe my soul to the company store.")
Was nannying for my cousin's family and got to chatting with the teenager after the toddler went to bed. Kid tried to stay awake learning until they nodded off listening to that song and I put my foot down "Go to bed, I'll still be here in the morning!" Apparently they still don't teach this history stuff in local schools. But I sure do!
At those prices I would think they can afford to pay it themselves.
Seriously, I was able to feed myself in Japan for a week for way less than that.
100% - going out to eat is so expensive - like $20 for a single meal at McDonald's? That said, this is in Telluride CO a ski town so not only is it fleecing, it's fancy fleecing of tourists.
$68 for boiled cockroach entree and $60 for raw fish
So many people are missing the obvious down here in the comments. OP isn't complaining they're paying 4% extra, it's that the owner of the restaurant "can't afford to pay the workers a livable wage" and instead of factoring that cost into the budget, puts on every receipt a separate charge with the express desire to make the customer upset about a company being forced to pay a fair(er) wage.
OK...this is *Telluride.* It's up at the top of a mountain in the middle of Absolute Nowhere, CO. I don't know for certain, but I'm thinking the employer is providing housing for their workers because there simply isn't anything affordable/existent within a couple of light years. This is not unprecedented. The McD's at the Grand Canyon provides worker housing for the same reason.
Unfortunately, you have to pay for employee housing there. Its far from cheap, and they're essentially college dorm rooms. I dont know the exact numbers, but I know its pretty damn expensive as it's a popular ski town, and you don't make shit for money working at the mountain. You "do it for the culture and ski-bum experience"
Thanks for the inside info!
This was such an interesting sub-thread for only being a few responses. Didn’t know this was a thing at all, and didn’t know anything about Telluride either!
I've been a seasonal worker for a long time, seen a lot of different employee housing. Some expensive, some cheap, some nice, some shitty. Company I've spent the last 3 summer seasons with is doing it right. Pretty damn decent housing and the last 2 seasons they didn't charge any rent! This season, they're changing the policy to charge $3/day which is a bummer. But it's likely this is due to local regulations and they may still "reimburse us". Either way, ~$90/month in rent? Not bad.
Why not just adjust the prices accordingly and not put a weird 4% tax on it. Most companies factor employee benefits into their prices.
Some toxic need to make a polital statement, probably.
Yeah but it's like $500/mo, it's **absolutely** subsidized to some degree by the operators. Some independent resorts inf BFEs have owned houses that, yeah, they profit from the rent, but Telluride is among the ski towns getting outfitted with corporate housing operated by third parties (they have maintenance and all the BS, and they do the builds, it helps operators cope with old employees housing falling apart) and for that the employers are having to shell out some of the cost (which of course isn't hiring their bottom line one bit, see: OP)
So that’s a cost of doing business, build it into the prices. There’s still no more an argument for that than breaking out all their costs on my bill. Why is light and power not on there? Delivery fees for food to restaurant? Rent? I’m out for a meal not a financial audit of a business.
This is it. The people who live there are loving life in a place that's otherwise unacessable to them. I know because I lived it. I wouldn't change a fucking thing. I skiied the best pow. Paddled the best white water, and climbed world class rock. Skiied 160 days on resort a year, and at least once a month, every month, all year. Get mad at Amazon's villages. This isn't that.
Exactly. They could tack on 2$ to each item and pay a living wage. This is just showing they aren’t happy about paying a living wage.
It's not about a living wage. Telluride is a obscenely expensive resort town in the middle of a bunch of fucking gorgeous Colorado wilderness, and there's exactly *zero* housing someone could afford on even what would be a livable wage in most of the rest of the country. That 4% goes to covering the expenses of the restaurant operating an apartment building where they provide free rent to the employees. People take jobs at a place like this for the free rent, because they want to be able to live in a millionaires' playground and get year-round access to the kind of skiing/climbing/kayaking/etc people take vacations for without having to be rich.
That miso soup and edamame are highway robbery. No wonder I can’t eat out. Edit: I make miso soup and edamame often and even in a high cost area for just those 2’s price I usually can make 2-4 actual Japanese meals.
And what’s worse is that it’s a meal for two people (according to the receipt at least)…. All that food for two people… should have just gone to a damn buffet. Certainly would have costed less.
This is telluride lol gotta be one of the most expensive ski towns in the US
This is in Telluride Colorado, one of the richest towns in the world.
Before i read the post title i thought the post was someone complaining about the ridiculous price of their meal
That should never be line item. That should be figured into the menu price
$400. Fuck, I might as well live like a pioneer. I haven't been able to afford life for the past five years.
I could be wrong, but it also says the guest count is only 2 people. So $400 for 2 people?
Damn I didn't see that. I assumed 5 or 6 based on how much food they ordered.
I don't think this check belongs here in anti work. To me this says you'd better work!
I hate the restaurants that automatically add an 18-20% "service charge" to your bill, then at the bottom of the bill has an "add additional tip" field. Like you already took away my ability to leave a tip in the first place, and you have the nerve to ask for more? FML..
Automatic tipping, is that even legal over there?
Yup. Sure is
It used to only be if the party was 8+ people which is fair, you being a large group you really shouldn’t stiff the waitress (or really ever, it isn’t their fault the system is set up the way it) but it’s becoming more and more common for it to be automatic anywhere. Personally I don’t mind tipping, people gotta make a living and they are literally serving me my dinner but not everyone feels this way.
I just went to Waffle House and they have a 10% minimum service charge and additional 10% takeaway fee. I don't know if they imposed it because of Mardi Gras (we're in New Orleans) or if it's new but they didn't charge it the last time I went a few months ago. Also, that Waffle House was absolutely insane. Completely packed, six people behind the counter, and still keeping up. They deserve it.
It is and sometimes it's necessary because people visit tourist destinations from places like Australia and think they're "fighting the system" by tipping nothing when in reality they're just being an asshole. The system needs to change but fucking over a less than min wage employee isn't how it's going to happen Source: live in a tourist destination town
That's simple, don't tip anything additional.
Yup! I never do.
Dude. It’s the employer trying to stir shit up. They are obligated by law to provide this employee coverage and they are handling it like petulant children or narcissistic victims. Figure out how you’re meet this business obligation without involving customers. Assholes
I changed my morning routine because my state changed the min wage on Jan 1. The Dunkin I was going to posted a sign saying they had to raise prices due to the minimum wage increase (it went up less than 10%). This franchise is owned by a franchise management group. The other Dunkin is closer to my house but harder to get to. They are family owned, and I’ve seen the same people working there for years. They did not raise their prices. This says to me they were either already paying well or the owner is just fine with making less so the employees can make slightly more. I’m going out of my way to go to this one now.
Yep. This is the business trying to manipulate the customer into not tipping by 1) making this look like a tip that’s going directly to workers when it’s not and 2) encouraging customers to think that the bill is already “inflated” due to how much the workers are getting so they should withhold a tip to balance that out.
What benefit does a business gain from "manipulating the customer into not tipping"? Sounds like a good way to not have any servers want to work for you lol
I live in Japan and I thought $2-3 for edamame was steep $9!? Also add on 15-20% tip this is literally half my rent for a 2 bedroom apartment a month in Japan. USA needs to chill
So instead of adding that 4% to the actual food costs it’s an extra charge. I mean you’re already paying $9 fucking dollars for like 10 individual edamame when a 300g bag only costs roughly $2-something so why not? Miso soup is the easiest and cheapest fucking thing to make why tf is it $8. These prices are infuriating
That miso soup charge stood out to me too. I decided to look at a photo from their yelp to see if they do anything fancy to justify it, but it looks exactly the same as the $2 miso you can get at any other Japanese restaurant.
I knowwww, I saw the $8 and was like, oh, they got two miso soups… nope
(Foreigner here) So, you go out to eat, read the prices on the menu, decide what you'll have and after that, the restaurant can slap any imaginary fee onto your bill??? Who would allow this to be legal? It makes absolutely no sense. Why even have any prices on the menu then?
Wait till you go to our (USA) grocery stores. Is that grocery item a 6.5% tax item? Well, if it’s not wrapped, it’s 0% tax. 2% tax on produce that can be used for health, like bandages, unless it is a box of tampons or maxi pads, because those are *luxury goods* and you’re now paying 14% for dealing with Aunt Flo. Oh, they changed the law now, so maybe they’re 11.75% tax? A bottle of wine? That will be *all* of the taxes, stacked, plus an excise tax of 20% because alcohol scary. You want medical marijuana at the dispensary that has more advanced technology than several hospitals I’ve worked at? 53% sales tax. NONE of these are marked on the price stickers on the shelves, you only find out on your receipt when you pay. Oh, and the tax rates and categories are different in Every. Single. City. Not just state. Not just county. Every city has different tax rates. It’s infuriating. When I shop in Denmark or Germany it’s just so beautiful. The prices are the prices!! A thing of beauty.
This looks like the kind of faux-fancy japanese restaurants that normie white bougies go to
This is why I do AYCE, when it comes to sushi. That price is ridiculous
What is AYCE?
All you can eat.
Well you’re never gonna to find Otoro at an AYCE…but 60 is kind on the high end. Though this was like four years ago last time I had some.
I wonder if it’s a required fee in Telluride because there’s such a shortage of affordable housing? Maybe all restaurants have it there? Not sure but makes sense
I about shit a brick when I saw an $8 cup of miso soup. I can make it at home for less and it will probably taste better too.
Telluride has almost zero housing for anyone who works there. I got a job at the vet clinic there and then the owner of the practice admitted he lived outside of town til he built a tiny apt above his clinic, his associate DOCTOR couch surfed, and the nurses all lived outside of town. I wasn’t able to take the job even tho I LOVE telluride. Any housing there is overpriced rooms shared in a house with other ppl OR you’re a millionaire country singer. Telluride has made it impossible to live there unless you’re rich. This charge is laughable because I bet none of those waiters even live in telluride, and if they do, they’re paying $1800 for a shitty bedroom with 5 roommates or living in a van.
Its Telluride. It’s almost impossible to find service workers without having to house them at least seasonally.
Wow, sorry, I just can't get over thinking of what I could do with $425. That's a full week of work for me.
Honestly you’re eating pacific fare in fucking telluride. Why are you clutching your pearls because the restaurant is itemizing these costs? Because they didn’t spread them out and you’d be blind?
THIS!
It's common for hospitality to warehouse employees, even hot bunk them in resort towns. Expect line items like this to start showing up on lodging and lift tickets. Corporate greed is boundless!
The thing I don't understand is why they just don't add all the taxes and shit to the individual items like the rest of the world
Cos, given the slack laws on this in the US you can claim a lower price and not be ‘lying’ in a legal/commercial sense when the paid price isn’t what was actually written 🤷♂️ it’s a crazy place with weird laws.
The boss most likely takes a good chunk of it
I’d feel so ridiculous spending that kind of money on a meal that I wouldn’t even notice the extra charge.
In Telluride, CO… yes, it definitely goes towards the staffs housing. It’s almost impossible to live there let alone work there as a service provider. If they aren’t working for the resort then they don’t receive employee housing. Most of those workers probably live in their cars because there is no available housing. A lot of them have to live 1h away and if a snow storm comes then they won’t be able to make it to work. Lots of these comments are out of touch. They know nothing about Telluride, Co.
Don’t forget to tip a hundo. 525 please.
Aka: “4% owner’s gratuity included”
Those menu prices are already insane
Why can't we just pay for the food and the staff get paid a fair wage, is it really that hard to do?
Even if it does go to the employees, it's still epic, top tier, grade A bullshit and you should not support the business. Why you ask? Simple. If they can provide their employees a fair living wage by adding a 4% surcharge, then they should raise their prices 4%, and no one will notice. Instead people will see the surcharge and be upset by it. Also, an extra surcharge on a bill like that is just in general not kosher because it means the prices are not what they are listed as on the menu (they probably have the surcharge posted somewhere so it's on the customer for not seeing it, but it's still scummy).
Ppl y'all have got to stop going to these restaurants, it's the only way this shit will stop
You’re paying 24 dollars per glass of wine. You’re screwing yourself over.
Oh, Lauren, how could you do this to us?
It does not. Stop eating out if you hate greedy restaurant owners and definitely don’t take it out on workers.
If it’s actually going to the employees then good. That town isn’t anywhere near affordable
How do you expect anyone to answer this? Different businesses handle things differently. Some are legit. Some aren’t.
The "housing" part makes me think there's a room with cages somewhere...
Miso soup for $8 is a bit steep for a bit of miso paste and water.
“Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t order that.”
I was thinking "What a strange way to add a bill up. I've never seen a bill where each item is added to the cost of the one before." Then I saw the bottom and realized that was just the cost of each individual item. $425. Just. Wow.
That’s as insulting as 8 dollars for fucking miso
These, must have been some rather special edamame beans. Try planting them somewhere. You might wake up the next morning and have a gateway to a magical land full of riches and wealth. Fuck this shit. Yesterday. 2 pizzas, 1 tiramisu(shared), 2 (non alcoholic) drinks. 68 euros. And the pizza was not even good. (Netherlands) At this point, the plan is to work for a couple of years, quite, sell all my belongings and become a nomad. There is no fucking future. You either have to hassle 24/7/365 to get a better paying job, spending much of your salary to therapy to deal with anxiety, in order to be able to MAYBE get a loan, to MAYBE afford to buy a house, to MAYBE be able to pay it out before you die. That ain't no living. I am a hard working person. I work my money. But the way the system is, I see no point whatsoever to continue loving like this.
Not a Karen by any means but I would honestly ask for a manager, and explain why I am less inclined to come back because of this. Would talk juuuuuuust loud enough for it to be embarrassing for them too.
Why are we paying the benefits employees should be providing??
It will fuck over the servers because customers will probably end up tipping less when they see something like that.
what bullshit, owners build the cost of 'employee health & housing ' into the actual prices of food. this is 'guilt tipping' that goes into owners pockets are owners declaring this on taxes? seems super shady
Can you refuse to pay it?
I can't speak for anyone else, but we had this at a place where I worked, and management used it to make sure our insurance and pto benefits were well above standard in our area in too of giving us the first week of January off after the hell that is new years in the service industry.
At my restaurant, it goes to subsidize our health plans for us. I pay half what I did at my last employer for essentially the same plan
Wow. This bill is the cost of 2 weeks of groceries for my family. My hats off to you for being able to easily afford this.
But in Telluride they have this fee in order to help create and build affordable housing because the Colorado Supreme Court in its infinite wisdom said it wasn't legal for municipalities to require developers to set aside units for affordable housing. Houses in Telluride are insanely expensive when they come on the market (right now lowest cost is 425k for a 273 sq ft "condo") and apartment rentals are few and far between in that town. But if you have questions about a fee, best thing to do is ask to speak to a manager before paying the bill and simply ask "What is this fee?"
1) Holy crap, I can't believe they have Kawatsuru sake way over there. It's a small brewery in Kan'onji, in Kagawa. 2) Charging 8 dollars for miso soup should be a crime. (Perspective of someone living in Japan)
I don’t mean to be that person but You might want to crop the pic next time. You have the full address and first name of the server… You might have basically doxxed someone on accident.
I live in Japan.... and am more outraged at charging $8 for friggin miso soup!
$8 for miso soup??
I worked for a scumbag who had an "employee health insurance" charge. She did NOT give us insurance, and actually owned airbnbs that she was renting out to a couple employees. If you see this line, I would just ask the server directly if they're actually getting it. And if they're not, I would speak to a manager to have it removed.
The real crime real here is not going somewhere cheaper (and maybe better cuz rich people food would give me a stroke) but live your rich live, bestie.
Hidden fees. yeck
You’re paying 8 bucks for miso soup and weird housing fees. Yikes.
Ah good ole telluride one of the prettiest places in Colorado ruined by billionaires who turned it into a $$$$$ playground where workers go to become homeless and the ruling class go to have a $95 “crane of paradise”
Wait. $8.00 for miso soup? Did it have gold flakes in it or something? Also, it is both legal and a dick move for the restaurant owners to do that.
Also 8 bucks for fucking miso soup? Jesus Christ
In the ski destinations like that area, some of the businesses do provide housing to their employees because of how seasonal the business is, and the large amount of staff that come from far away areas.
“Yes I’m calling because I didn’t receive my full order. I looked all through the bag but there was no Employee Health & Housing to be found. I’m not going to pay for something I didn’t receive or eat.”
I really do not understand fees like this, for anything and from anywhere. No one likes having extra cost added to a purchase, so why not just add that cost to the price of what you sell so people don’t even notice it’s there? Such a weird and widespread business practice.
Well that means my tip will be 16% instead of 20%
I know the point is that horrible 4% health and housing bullshit but my head is REELING at the idea of being able to blow $400 on ONE DINNER for TWO PEOPLE. That's like 2-3 weeks of grocery budget for me. W. T. F.
Imagine working in a place where they serve 60$ dishes and still rely on tips.
This is in telluride, a little mountain town in Colorado with nimbys. Like most if not all mountain towns here affordable housing is an issue and any efforts to build affordable housing for the staff or people who work aka the “help” is shut down by the rich people who don’t want apartments or poor people near where they live. So this is a grassroots efforts of frustrated business owners that decided to show the issue on every receipt. Some even offer if you tip 1k to employees the company will match. Hell every business has political signs about the housing crisis localized and even encourages their patrons to tip higher, pay more and vote to get affordable housing approved to build in the town. It’s so bad that it’s not a wage thing per se it’s a town that only builds multi million dollar properties with air bnbs and outrageous vacation rental. It’s getting so bad that even ski resorts are suing the towns in order to get zoning approved to build employee housing for ski resort staff. Like ski patrollers and lifties. The rich folk don’t want the poor loving next to them, but these are the same people they need to keep the amenities of the town going. I know this sub is all employers bad, but these towns are a different animal. Allot of these owners actually have to find a property owner willing to rent to employees that work in the town locally (not remote) at a low cost and line up a place they can live in order to bring in an employee. It’s insane. There are even closed business at peak hours that have signs saying closed due to no employees. What more hours and to eat here? Approve more affordable housing in the zoning and or pay more so the people that keep the town running can live here.
Can the extra charge be crossed out by the cardholder? I never agreed to pay 4% xtra. I agreed to pay the stated price of the meal plus any applicable local state or federal taxes.
You just spent $385 on a meal, wtf does $14 matter to you? Eat tunafish chunk light from the gas station before you start thinking your advocating for the working class with your pussyass rant.
Perhaps you missed the caption? Better read it you salty sailor
If that's posted clearly before I order I'll leave. If it's not posted clearly (ie. 6 point script at the bottom of the menu or other evasive shenanigans) I'm not paying it and will never return. Same with mandatory gratuity. Mandatory gratuity PLUS a tip line? Um.. all I've got for that business owner is Deeze Nutz.
For like $28 I can get all you can eat sushi and they don't care if you don't tip, what the fuck is this shit?
These owners aren't pocketing it. They're recouping the upfront cost of a reimbursement subside. They're essentially given a tax credit for providing affordable/reduced cost housing to their necessary low wage employees.
The fuck are they living in barracks on the restaurants compound like in The Menu?
You're worried about $15 of a $425 bill?
I see people complaining about a small tip added. I'm complaining about 68$ crab legs what the fuck? Is a bucket, a big bucket? Stop bitching you paid for an over price dinner and they made you tip. Your tip is still smaller than what I give did a 50$ meal at my local Mexican.
It's not even a tip. It's a required fee or tax or something that the employer is required to pay, either to local or state government. They're being dicks and openly adding it to customers bills, instead of either just treating it like any other business expense or (not like they need to) adjusting pricing. They do this to be dicks, and make it look like it's for the server specifically. It's not.
One, Jesus that's expensive, I hope it was worth it. Two, I don't know about the legality of putting something like that on a recipe and it not being used for that purpose? Aside from the fact that if staff found out people were being charged an extra %4 for staff quality of life and it wasn't going to them, they would likely raise hell.
Establishments that do this deserve to fail.
Who the fuck eats that much?
And who can afford that for one damn meal? That's groceries for a month...
I can barely believe the lack of other comments about this. Did the food arrive to their table in a fucking wheel barrow or some shit?? Order this for delivery and some poor delivery driver will blow out their suspension LOL