(Patriot Insider) – The woke leftist lunacy continues in America. One Minneapolis restaurant has now decided to start charging customers a 15% “benefits and equity” charge because, well, customers are too racist and sexist to properly tip on their own, apparently.
Broders Pasta Bar in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has notified potential customers that they will now be forced to pay the new tax if they wish to dine at their restaurant.
As part of their justification for the charge, they say that “many states have allowed reduced minimum wages for service staff in the form of a tip credit.”
Their real issue, however, appears to be with the fact that they believe most of their customers are just racist and sexist, which they have concluded based on uncited research.
Went to book a reservation at my favorite restaurant in the Cities—Broders'—and was informed all customers were being charged a 15% "equity" charge.
Instead of just paying their employees more, Broders has decided to inform customers they are too racist/sexist to tip properly. pic.twitter.com/LeiC2RcPEm
— Jon Miltimore (@miltimore79) June 22, 2021
Broders' justifies its "equity" charge by saying many "states have allowed reduced minimum wages for service staff in the form of a tip credit.”
True. But guess what? Minnesota is not one of those states.
So apparently, Broders' has no problem deceiving its customers. pic.twitter.com/wIH2UFBOY7
— Jon Miltimore (@miltimore79) June 22, 2021
“Studies have also shown that there is inequity and built-in bias in the way consumers give tips,” the statement reads. “In general, Black or Brown servers receive less tips than Caucasian servers. There is gender bias as well.”
In the final part of their statement explaining the new tax, they claim that the new policy is a result of wider racial injustice and that the tax does not substitute for gratuity.
“In the wake of racial injustice protests and the closures due to Covid, now is the time for Broders’ to reimagine its economics and provide fair pay across the company,” the statement reads.
“Our Benefits & Equity Charge is applied entirely to employee compensation. This supplement helps us to set a $16 minimum hourly wage for customer facing employees, $18 minimum hourly wage for kitchen employees… Altogether this allows everyone in our company to earn a real living wage. The 15% Benefits & Equity Charge is not a gratuity.”
In other words, Broders wants their employees to enjoy a much higher minimum wage, as Democrats insist the federal minimum wage should be $15/hr, but they don’t actually want to have to pay their employees more.
So much for leftists insisting that consumers would never have to pay more to compensate for a higher increased minimum wage.
If anything, you have to give Broders credit for creativity. They want to be woke and they expect their customers to financially support it.
As Jonathan Miltimore, Managing Editor at FEE.org, points out:
…if Broders’ doesn’t feel restaurant workers in the back are earning enough money, there is a solution to that: pay them more. This action doesn’t require any surcharges or public lectures on systemic oppression. It only requires the restaurant to run an efficient and profitable business that allows them to pay workers a wage they believe is fair and “livable.”
He also goes on to write about how this is the perfect example of the “fixed pie fallacy” that assumes that the economy is fixed and that for the poor to do better, those who are better off must sacrifice more.
“If we assume that wealth is a fixed pie, then the more slices the rich get, the fewer are left over for the poor,” Chelsea Follett explained. “In other words, people can only better themselves at the expense of others. In the world of the fixed pie, if we observe the rich becoming richer, then it must be because other people are becoming poorer. Fortunately, in the real world, the pie is not fixed.”
Of course, Broders and other restaurants are free to add extra charges for their customers to pay in an effort to be more “equitable” but consumers also have a choice and you know the saying, “Go woke, go broke.”
Copyright 2021. PatriotInsider.org
I live in Virginia and we have restaurants adding 20 per cent to each check. Since I usually tip 20 or 30 per cent that’s what they get. I refuse to have 20 percent added to my check and then be expected to leave a tip.
I couldn’t agree more! Excellent comment!
I hope their customers refuse to patronize that restaurant and they go out of business. It would serve them right. This situation that Biden created is getting totally out of hand. It’s like we’re living in Nazi Germany during HITLER’S reign.
Exactly!
Here is a business that really wants to go bankrupt…. Would NEVER go there!!
So when this restaurant goes out of business, nobody will be getting a “Benefits and Equity” compensation. Genius!
Ridiculous. I would hope that EVERYONE who has chosen to go there in the past would flat out refuse to return AND tell 10 of their friends to never go there. With any luck, the owners will be out of business in short order. Yes, this sucks for the workers but a line in the sand MUST be drawn!!!
Won’t be visiting this place. I only pay on service and quality of food and treatment from the establishment not because they think they deserve it. Restaurants are fighting to stay open this guy is begging to close his doors. Good luck with this dumb strategy.
Since when are businesses allowed to tax their customers. They are right it is not a gratuity it is ROBBERY.
Tips are based on the service I receive. So the stupitee of the left never fails to shine through. I personally hope the business fails and the doors close. Ignorance will always fail.
I totally agree
in australia waiting staff are paid 25$ per hour we do not tip
I’ll bet the restaurant owners live in the biggest house on the highest hill. Don’t be so greedy – those employees are what make YOU prosperous! Give your employees a bigger share of your businesses pie. Move into the same neighborhood your cooks live in! Wear the same clothes they do! Experience the same level of entertainment they do! No more trips to the Bahamas for the winter! Here’s an idea – divide up your restaurants profits equally among you and your employees, as they deserve as much money as you do, actually more, because they do all the work! So, make your share half of what the actual workers get. SHARE YOUR WEALTH, NOT YOUR CUSTOMERS, IF YOU THINK THE WORLD REQUIRES EQUALITY AND EQUITY!
Just another “(b)iden tax” (inflation) we weren’t SUPPOSED to pay.Along with gas tax,food tax,lumber/building supplies tax,energy tax,climate tax,soon to be higher income tax,Everybody paying more,getting less.Welcome to (b)iden’s America.
Maybe I missed it or it wasn’t there – is this ‘tax’ assessed on ALL patrons or only ‘certain’ ones? Asking for a friend since this ‘could’ have racist over tones. I certainly would never patronize such a place.
I think businesses should be allowed to do this.
However, most would pay the waitperson far less than normal and claim this as their compensation.
I also think that customers have the right not to go there,
this would be my choice.