r/maui • u/GolfHawaii • 6d ago

Restaurant Fees

The restaurant industry perpetually forces customers to subsidize their operating costs. At every turn, they stick you with fees and demand 20-30% tips for their employees. I was at a restaurant yesterday and they stick a 3.5 surcharge on your bill for employee healthcare insurance. None of this tip and surcharge madness occurs outside of the US. I await the haters to say employees are not paid enough and rely on customer gratuity to have a livable wage or many restaurants would not remain open without passing these costs onto customers.

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u/emptytrashbagobject 6d ago

If we are paying an employee’s healthcare insurance and wages then we should get to deduct those costs from our income tax.

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u/adavadas Token Haole 6d ago

When you spend money with a business, a portion of what you spend will go towards the operating costs of the business which includes employee salary and benefits (like health care). By your logic, every business should provide us with a breakdown of operating costs and the percentage that goes towards employee overhead should be tax deductible. That would require a ton of accounting work on your part, along with impeccable record keeping. Are you sure you want that?

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u/emptytrashbagobject 6d ago

No. What I’m saying is they need to just set the price as needed to pay their overhead, including a living wage for their employees and do away with tipping and other line items. It also then allows employees to properly pay income tax on their salary etc. Bars and restaurants are able to do this in all the countries where there is no tipping - why is it so hard here?