Tipping is a given when you go out to eat in the U.S. However, what you don’t expect to see is an additional 5% charge for something called “employee health” when all you’ve done is order some steak, fries, and a Diet Coke. However, that’s certainly what happened to a woman named Ashley Nicole on a recent trip to a local restaurant.
Ashley took to TikTok to share her receipt, which included an additional $4.75 charge for “employee health.” Wanting to know what it was, she decided to ask the restaurant straight up.
“The weirdest thing just happened to me. It’s cold and it’s rainy in LA, so me and my bestie decided to go out to dinner. We go to one of my favorite restaurants,” she said in the clip.
“This is the Osteria La Buca. It is an Italian restaurant here in LA and I’ve been to multiple times. We enjoy our meal. We get the check, we pay for our check, and as we are like signing the tip and stuff, we notice something.”
Ashley said she nearly didn’t notice the extra charge, but once she did, she was like, WTF?
Are customers really expected to pay for employees’ healthcare now?
@ashnichole_xo Is this normal?? #greenscreen #receipt #employeehealth #restaurant
“So as we’re like walking out, I go up to the hostess and I’m like, ‘Hey, quick question, just curious. I saw that you guys charged us $5 each, not total for the table, each, both of us, for employee health and I just had to ask like, what is that?’ And she goes, ‘Oh, that’s our healthcare’ and my reaction was, ‘Your healthcare?’ And she goes, ‘Yes, our healthcare,'” she recalled.
While Americans have pretty much accepted that we have to tip servers to make up for cheap employers who refuse to pay their employees a living wage, paying for their healthcare is a whole other kettle of fish.
“I’ve never heard of that before, ever,” Ashley admitted. “And I had to find out – is that normal and have I been living under a rock? Is it a normal thing or is this weird because I’ve never experienced this before and it feels weird, but maybe this is normal elsewhere. Let me know ’cause I’ve never seen this before.”
People took to the comments to point out that no, this is not normal and it’s definitely not okay.
“This is insane. I pay so much for my own healthcare and now restaurants employees! No way. That’s the owner responsibility,” one person wrote. Another added, “I don’t even have healthcare, not paying for someone else’s!” Tipping culture has been taken to a whole new level!
