Someone in Denver made a list of restaurants who impose “service fees.” Not all heroes wear capes. Some wield spreadsheets.
If the customer is not warned ahead of time (in writing on the menu), these are now illegal in Colorado. That law passed in November for January 1st. Restaurants had nearly 2 months to prepare to comply and they’ve had another six weeks since the law went into effect. Plus, they had all the campaign time to decide what they would do if it passed.
The list
So far, not including the ones that have closed, it’s at 417 places of where NOT to go.
These are mostly the places that are following the law. They reprinted their menus, but instead of increasing their prices, they added the legalese and a fee of up to 23%. This fee is added before taxes (making it more like 25%) and tip. A “service fee” is not a gratuity which is protected by federal wage laws; it can-and-will be taken by management.
Their arguments
Here is the other thing. Restaurants think we want to tip. They think we want lower prices and extra fees. They are delulu, of course.
Customer opinions
What we want is to know what we are going to have to pay. We want to eat. We do not want to whip out a spreadsheet to budget our dinner. Put the effin’ price on the effin’ menu and be done.
We have a whole set of laws about Surprise Billing in health care. This is the same bullshit, just on a smaller scale. At least now they have to disclose it. And thanks to the list, at least now, we know ahead of time where not to go.
We’ve been to a couple of these places. One is even Michelin Recommended. At the time we went, it was a 20% built-in gratuity. That was fine for both us and our friends. But now, there is an illegal 22% fee before any tip is applied.
One strategy that some people are applying is just take the fee out of the tip. So at these 23% places, they leave $0. And at the 5% places, they leave 15%. All that does is hurt the server who is also a victim in this racket.