‘It’s a new thing’: Woman says restaurants are now sneakily charging you for this. Then she shows how to spot it on your check

When dining out, the price you see on the menu is rarely the price you end up paying. Given that the listed cost on the menu doesn’t include things like tax and tip—which can easily increase a bill by anywhere from 15 to 25% or higher—it’s no surprise that many nights out end with diners paying a bit more than they bargained for.

These extra costs are often added to the bill itself. While some of these charges make sense, some strain credulity upon further inspection. For example, one woman claimed she was charged a “prep fee” for having a bartender shake her margarita. Another claimed that a restaurant attempted to charge her $125 for simply sitting down at a table, and a further user stated that she was billed a $50 “unruly children” fee.

Now, in a video with over 840,000 views, TikTok user Tara Rule (@tara_rule) is calling out restaurants that charge for this unusual thing.

What was this diner charged for at the end of her meal?

According to Rule, she went out to eat with her boyfriend, Justin, and his mother. When the bill arrived, her boyfriend’s mother saw a questionable charge on the receipt and asked the server about it.

“[The server] got very kind of defensive and was like, ‘Oh it's just like for our insurance. So, do you want me to take it off the bill?’” Rule recalls. “And Justin's mom was like, ‘Well, yes. You know I'm still gonna give you a good tip—of course, I wanna tip you—but I don't feel like I should be paying for things that your employer should be paying for, like insurance.”

Later in the video, Rule says that Justin had noticed a similar charge from a different restaurant.

Justin’s mother claimed that since restaurants began adding things like kitchen surcharges to bills to make up for money lost from in-person dining during COVID, fees like the aforementioned insurance charges have become commonplace.

“A lot of restaurants now are actually charging you to pay for their employees’ insurance, liability insurance, 401ks, retirement, things of that nature,” Rule explains. “They’re sneaking it onto the bill as a surcharge.”

“I don’t think it’s fair or appropriate—or maybe not even fully legal—for these restaurants to be doing this, trying to trick the patron into paying for things that the employer should be responsible for,” Rule argues later in the video.

How common are these fees?

Rule isn’t the first to report on these fees being present in restaurants. Other internet users have claimed to receive similar fees on their bills, ranging from 3.5% to 5% or more.

As referenced by Rule, it appears that fees like these became more common during and in the years following the pandemic. 

That said, restaurant owners who impose these charges say that it can often be removed from a bill simply by asking, even if that fact isn’t made clear on the menu or bill.

Seeing as restaurants are not required to offer health insurance unless they have over 50 full-time staff—and so-called “service charges” don’t always go to servers—it’s understandable to wonder, as Rule does in a follow-up video, whether these fees are truly going to the staff.

If one is questioning whether this fee actually goes to benefit their server, they can simply talk to them and see if they truly receive health insurance benefits as implied by the bill.

@tara_rule @appleby #consumer #restaurant #tip #capitalism ♬ original sound - Tara Rule

Commenters share their thoughts

In the comments section, users shared the bizarre charges they’ve received on their restaurant bills, as well as debating the necessity of these charges altogether.

“I went to a restaurant recently and we were going to take our leftovers to go. But there was a 7% charge for any to go boxes,” wrote a user.

“I don’t get why they don’t just rework the menu prices to cover these expenses and they say ‘tipping is not needed as we pay employees fair wages,’” questioned another.

“We were at a little Cafe in Silver lake and they put the charge on there for their insurance. I'm fine with it as long as it's in place of a tip- it was not,” stated a third. “we were still expected to give 20% plus.”

The Daily Dot reached out to Rule via email and Instagram DM.

Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post ‘It’s a new thing’: Woman says restaurants are now sneakily charging you for this. Then she shows how to spot it on your check appeared first on The Daily Dot.