Cafe charges customers 35 cent "minimum wage fee"

[Hum]

 A Minnesota restaurant is passing along the cost of the state's minimum wage hike to customers, and the move has sparked outrage.

Diners at the Oasis Cafe in Stillwater, Minn., recently noticed a "MIN WAGE FEE" tacked on to the bottom of their receipts, beneath more mundane items like burgers and fries.

A increase hiking the minimum wage as high as $8 an hour. The restaurant's fee appears to be a response to the increase, but the owners did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

At least one diner, Jean Murra, noticed the fee on her check on August 1.

"I was shocked," Murra wrote in an email. She said that she wouldn't mind if the restaurant raised prices a bit, but felt that the owners put the fee on the receipt "to make a political statement."

"We will not go back there," she wrote. Hundreds of other commenters on the restaurant's Facebook and Yelp pages in the past few days felt similarly. Most of the comments are negative -- even unprintable -- and assume that the owners added the fee as a protest against the law.

"We are coming to Minnesota next week and this was going to be a stop. No More," one Facebook user wrote on the page.

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[Shiranui]

"I was shocked," Murra wrote in an email. She said that she wouldn't mind if the restaurant raised prices a bit, but felt that the owners put the fee on the receipt "to make a political statement."

 

I'm glad customers have that attitude. The owners sound like a right bunch of cloacas.

[adrynalyne]

35 cents enrages people?

 

 

Never thought I would do it, but....

 

 

'MURICA!

 

 

Eat at home if 35 cents is a hardship.

 

As for the receipt comment, sounds like the owners are a-holes.

[Hum]

"We are coming to Minnesota next week and this was going to be a stop. No More."

 

Sounds like that wage hike is really going to help employees. :laugh:

[Mockingbird]

The minimum wage increase can't even keep up with inflation and people are complaining.

[Torolol]

so is the increases included for tax or not?

[FloatingFatMan]

35 cents enrages people?

 

 

Never thought I would do it, but....

 

 

'MURICA!

 

 

Eat at home if 35 cents is a hardship.

 

As for the receipt comment, sounds like the owners are a-holes.

 

The actual cost involved has bugger all to do with it.

[Hum]

The minimum wage increase can't even keep up with inflation and people are complaining.

 

^ Inflation is allegedly under 2%, currently.

[REM2000]

I think it's a bit crap of the restaurant to make a kind of stand against minimum wage, it's there to help people not go under the breadline. If the new minimum wage was having an effect on the restaurant then they could have included the price increase into the cost of fries, drinks etc.. to make up the difference, are we going to reach a point where food is sold really cheap only to have cook the food tax, using a plate tax tacked onto the bottom to make everything look cheaper than it actually is. 

[Vykranth]

When the prices on the food supplies increase for that restaurant, or the price on electricity, water, local taxes, what does the owner of that restaurant do? Does he not transfer the increase cost to the price of the items he sells?

 

So, what is the difference for the cost of revenue of items sold whether it is the employees salary or the base cost of the materials? Besides the owner of that restaurant being a douchebag?

[BGM]

35 cents enrages people?

 

 

Never thought I would do it, but....

 

 

'MURICA!

 

 

Eat at home if 35 cents is a hardship.

 

As for the receipt comment, sounds like the owners are a-holes.

read it again, that's not the issue here...

 

it's the 'protest' from the cafe owners by itemising it on their receipt that is irritating people.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

When the prices on the food supplies increase for that restaurant, or the price on electricity, water, local taxes, what does the owner of that restaurant do? Does he not transfer the increase cost to the price of the items he sells?

 

So, what is the difference for the cost of revenue of items sold whether it is the employees salary or the base cost of the materials? Besides the owner of that restaurant being a douchebag?

Because the 35c has nothing to do with minimum wage (Unless it takes a single employee an hour to make an item of course), they're just rising prices to annoy people and blame that on the minimum wage increase.

[protocol7]

Well that's different.

[vanx]

This thread is begging for a "everyone loses their minds" Joker meme :D

[MikeChipshop Member]

35 cents enrages people?

 

 

Never thought I would do it, but....

 

 

'MURICA!

 

 

Eat at home if 35 cents is a hardship.

 

As for the receipt comment, sounds like the owners are a-holes.

 

It's nothing to do with the cost, it could have been .10 and it would still be an outrage.

Because the 35c has nothing to do with minimum wage (Unless it takes a single employee an hour to make an item of course), they're just rising prices to annoy people and blame that on the minimum wage increase.

 

I doubt it is this. It's a mind numbing political rant and they think they're going to make it all better by putting a snarky comment on all their receipts. 

[Hum]

I think it's a bit crap of the restaurant to make a kind of stand against minimum wage, it's there to help people not go under the breadline. If the new minimum wage was having an effect on the restaurant then they could have included the price increase into the cost of fries, drinks etc.

 

People seem to forget that any price increase often drives customers away.

 

I definitely buy less, and sometimes stop buying at all.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

People seem to forget that any price increase often drives customers away.

 

I definitely buy less, and sometimes stop buying at all.

To be fair I don't think you can buy much from social welfare cheques.

[Hum]

social welfare cheques ? Welfare in the USA is not a check.

 

They use 'debit' type cards.

 

And generally, you can not buy restaurant food with EBT.

 

Grocery store prices are the same, whether paying by cash or food assistance.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

social welfare cheques ? Welfare in the USA is not a check.

 

They use 'debit' type cards.

 

And generally, you can not buy restaurant food with EBT.

 

Grocery store prices are the same, whether paying by cash or food assistance.

Ah. Well you're the expert on living on social welfare in the US, not I.

[Hum]

I live on the increasing rare thing called cash. ;)

 

But I watch what I spend at high priced restaurants.

[Osiris]

Not to suggest Australia or any other country has the absolute right approach but its a truly bizarre socioeconomic culture you guys are cultivating for yourselves over there at the moment, I don't know how its all going to end but I suspect it will get a lot worse before it gets better.

[HSoft]

I think it's quite humorous that a lot of people here bemoan the state of the minimum wage and are always pushing to get it increased but when someone points out the effect of this then these same people think it's outrageous.  

Guess people don't like to see the consequences of their actions...

[Hum]

^ Same with public services -- they want ever increasing 'freebies', but don't want the taxes going up to pay for them.

[Anibal P]

Not to suggest Australia or any other country has the absolute right approach but its a truly bizarre socioeconomic culture you guys are cultivating for yourselves over there at the moment, I don't know how its all going to end but I suspect it will get a lot worse before it gets better.

 

 

It will end when Government gets out of the way of businesses, they pay a wage commensurate of the skill required AND what the local economy can sustain, the problem is that rich liberals love to complain about the "little guy" and get BS laws passed that actually hurt the people they claim to be for, and then have the balls to claim it's greed and not real factors like job type and local economy, and I can guarantee you some liberal will come by and to refute what I just posted without actually trying to use facts, like they always do 

[Skin]

Soooo, the owner could have simply raised prices by 35 cents on the items, or added it as a 'service fee' and no one would bat an eye. Do it in a way that appears slightly political and every one goes crazy and dogs and cats live together, and there's mass hysteria.

 

Bottom line. Someone is told what to pay employees, they in turn need to come up with a way to do this and still maintain profits and viability. Good on them. Don't want to eat there, don't. To make it a media circus is crazy.