During the pandemic, many restaurants charged customers extra to make up for lost revenue during that period.
But a Southern California restaurant was surprised to see a charge on its bill this month that it hadn’t seen before — an “employee health benefit.”
While dining at Osteria La Buca in Sherman Oaks, Calif., TikToker Ashley Nichole says she scanned the bill with her boyfriend and noticed something in the tip selection section of her bill before giving viewers a copy of the receipt. showed.
@ashnichole_xo Is this normal?? #green screen #receipt #employee health #restaurant ♬ original sound – Ashley Nichole
“If you notice down here, there’s a $4.75 bill for employee health,” she said. “The first thought was, what is employee health? What does it mean?”
Related: Restaurants Add “Inflation Charges” to Customer Checks
The TikToker then asked the hostess, who told her that the money went to employees’ health care funds.
“Have I been living under a rock and is this normal, or is this weird,” she asked viewers. “Because I’ve never experienced this before, and it feels weird, but maybe this is normal elsewhere.”
The comment sparked a debate in the comments section, with viewers expressing mixed opinions on whether or not this charge was necessary or warranted.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not paying for this. Just tax and tip. Health care should be paid for by the employer,” one user said bluntly. “These fees are getting out of hand.”
“Listen. Every company that provides healthcare ends up passing those costs on to customers,” another suggested. “But why not just raise the menu prices a bit?”
The clip has been viewed more than 887,800 times.
Osteria La Buca’s decision follows countless other restaurants that have added COVID recovery and inflation-related fees to unsuspecting customers when they receive their bills.
According to the Labor Statistics Bureauthe CPI for ‘Food Away from Home’ (including restaurant and takeaway prices) increased 8.3% year over year from December 2021 to December 2022.