Restaurant Gets Grilled After Adding a Minimum Wage Fee to Checks

by Cassy Fiano | August 11, 2014 1:12 pm

Voters beware: your actions have consequences. That’s what angry restaurant patrons are learning the hard way after a restaurant decided to add a minimum wage fee to their customers’ checks.

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A Stillwater, Minnesota, restaurant is under fire after it passed on a recent minimum wage hike by adding part of the extra 75 cents an hour to customers’ checks.

The state ordered a mandatory wage increase effective August 1, but Oasis Cafe owner Craig Beemer reacted by adding a 35 cent ‘minimum wage fee’ directly to diners’ tabs, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Members of the community were outraged and took to Facebook to voice their fury. The phone was also reportedly running hot with complaints.

However, Oasis Cafe manager Colin Orcutt defended Beemer’s decision claiming they were only being upfront with their customers.

He said that in order to keep their doors open they needed to pass on the increase, and that doing it indirectly through raising prices of their menu items would have been ‘a lot more backhanded.’

Plenty of (usually liberal-minded) people think raising the minimum wage is a fantastic idea, but the Oasis Café shows exactly why it’s ludicrous. Here’s a hint: raising business costs also means raising prices, and if you’re not happy with that, then maybe you should rethink this whole idea about raising the minimum wage.

Also see: 20 Basic Truths You Can’t Talk About in America Anymore[2]