Restaurant Charging ACA ‘Surchage’ For Fee That Doesn’t Exist
Gator’s Dockside’s 8 Florida locations are charging customers a 1% surcharge for fees they say they’re incurring because of the Affordable Care Act. And they claim it’s not a political move, except for one thing: The fee doesn’t exist until a year from now.
The other hitch is that, as of right now, the restaurant only provides insurance to management, despite owners’ lamentations that they “have” to charge the fee to cover 70% of their employees’ insurance. Once the employer mandate kicks in next year, the chain will have to offer insurance to all of its full-time employees (about half).
They’re only hurting their employees as customers withhold tips because of the surcharge.
D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.