We’re dropping our usual roundup of chiropractor-worthy moments to focus this week on a single bean-turning development. It too perfectly reflects restaurateurs’ frustration with government’s fire hose blast of labor initiatives to merit anything less than full-installment attention.
This, let it be noted, is the point where New York City restaurants alerted their government they’d had enough.
The manifesto
A letter was delivered late last week to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio by a group representing 208 full-service restaurants in the Big Apple. Its message was as subtle as a Bronx accent: For two years we’ve asked for help in dealing with skyrocketing costs, many of which you had a hand in raising. Now we’re no longer politely asking.
“We, the full-service restaurant operators of New York City, implore you to permit our establishments to include an optional surcharge on dining checks,” the communication flatly stated.
The open letter spelled out the why’s once again for de Blasio: nine mandated wage hikes in three years, including a doubling of employers’ minimum payment to servers and a major expansion of which employees are entitled to overtime. And those hikes were on top of skyrocketing rents.
The missive, penned by the New York City Hospitality Alliance, also listed how restaurants have reacted. The seven cited responses were variations on the themes of laying off people and forgoing expansion.
“The full-service restaurants in NYC are now closing in unprecedented numbers,” it lamented. Raising prices will only further hurt business, underscoring the need for a surcharge, it argued.
The letter closed with, “Thank you for your immediate action,” and was signed by the 208 restaurants, including many of the city’s most famous spots.
De Blasio has yet to respond publicly, but he did not push through a legislative attempt to OK a surcharge in 2016.
New York’s laws expressly forbid restaurants to levy a surcharge on checks, a tactic that has been adopted in other cities, in and outside of the state, as a way of offsetting spikes in labor and real estate costs.
The communication did not specify how much of a surcharge the restaurants would like to tack onto bills. In other regions, the rider has been as low as 3%.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.