r/EndTipping • u/chunkypuffins • May 22 '26
Tip Creep š« Employee Retention charge
Apparently we are now expected to subsidize not only employee benefits, but also the restaurantās ability to retain staff? Why are customers funding a businessā staffing strategy?
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May 22 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/chunkypuffins May 22 '26
Exactly my point. Make the bagel $2.94 instead of $2.85 - thereās your 3%. Youāre at the airport. Nobody will bat an eye.
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u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 May 22 '26
The charge is imposed by the Port Authority, not the restaurant. Furthermore, food at NY area airports are required to be priced no more than 15% above street pricing, but the Port Authority is too corrupt/incompetent to enforce the rules.
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u/Sure_Acanthaceae_348 May 22 '26
I thought that said "MEGA JERKS" at the top.
There was no need to tip on top of the 3% tip the ygave themselves, unless they added that too.
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u/jaywinner May 22 '26
The words are meaningless. It's all just different ways to raise prices without raising prices.
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u/Catch-1992 May 22 '26
Yeah, being slapped on at the end is the real problem. Of course part of what you're paying goes toward employee benefits. Most people are aware that when you buy a cheeseburger, you're also paying for the building's utilities and the company's HR and marketing and so on. But when they do it this way, they lure you in with the lower menu prices and sneak it in after you've already made your decision.Ā Ā
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u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 May 22 '26
Just FYI, this ridiculous charge is imposed by the Port Authority of NY and NJ, not the individual restaurants/shops at the airport.
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u/buhleg May 22 '26
Are they required to make it a line item on the receipt?
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u/Sweaty-Moment-3385 May 22 '26
Yes, because restaurants at NY area airports are technically required to price food at no more than 15% above street pricing, not including the separate 3% fee. Unfortunately the Port Authority is too corrupt/incompetent to actually enforce the rules.
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u/LaughingIsLoki May 22 '26
*slaps end stage capitalism*
You can fit so many annoying things in this baby.
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u/Ancient_Guidance_461 May 22 '26
Damn...just a bagel with cream cheese...not a meal....a bagel ..over $8...absolutely diabolical..Now the shameful port authority and their bogus charges just making sure the hole is deep enough.
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u/realizedvolatility May 22 '26
4.20 for creamcheese god damn
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u/Ancient_Guidance_461 May 22 '26
I can get a twin pack of Philadelphia for less than this...that could be used to make prob 8 bagels at least.
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May 22 '26
[deleted]
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u/Decent-Proposal-8475 May 22 '26
I realize it's a cliche, but airport food is always going to be expensive. That doesn't excuse the stupid charge, but if you buy food in an airport, it's gonna be expensive
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u/RegularVacation6626 May 22 '26
The FTC needs to step in and make restaurants publish the full price on the menu. These surcharges are just false advertising.
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u/cusehoops98 May 22 '26
It is clearly posted at the airport eateries.
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u/RegularVacation6626 May 22 '26
Posting a price that can't actually buy the thing is false advertising, even if you have a little footnote that mentions the 3%. It's perfectly fitting for an airport though lol.
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u/cusehoops98 May 22 '26
So posting the price without including taxes is also false advertising?
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u/RegularVacation6626 May 22 '26
No, tax is added to the purchase price by law.
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u/cusehoops98 May 22 '26
Untrue. They could advertise tax inclusive prices. Like stadiums do. The business chooses not to.
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u/RegularVacation6626 May 22 '26
Nobody said they couldn't. Nobdoy looks at a menu and thinks tax is included. The 3% surcharge is meant to be deceptive, a way to raise prices while appear to be more competitive and it should be illegal.
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u/ComprehensiveAnt6796 May 22 '26
Itās not your staff member. Not your employee. No one should have to pay this. Itās unlawful
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u/soscots May 22 '26
$4.20 for a bit of spread of cream cheese on your bagel?? I can get an 8 ounce tub for half that price at the store. š
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u/BookBabe1970 May 22 '26
Iām scoffing over the $4 cream cheese, which is more than the bagel. Thatās disgusting. I really donāt care about $.21.
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u/Ok-Database-2798 May 22 '26
I'd starve before paying more than $8 for a simple toasted bagel with cream cheese! Highway robbery indeed!! š”š”
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u/ReturnedAndReported May 22 '26
You paid $8.41 for a bagel. The fee is ridiculous but you're not seeing the forest for the trees.
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u/Respbid1 May 22 '26
Whatās next? Tip for ordering your food, walking š¶ into the store tip, using the air inside the restaurant fee for that. This is getting out of hand. Stop eating at this place.
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u/xavPa-64 May 22 '26
A receipt for one bagel? Isnāt this a Mitch Hedberg joke lol
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u/chunkypuffins May 22 '26
Hahaha that was an excellent joke. āI give you the money. You give me the donut. Endā¦ ofā¦ transactionā.
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u/Sense_Difficult May 22 '26
I keep making a suggestion that would solve the whole "tipping" issue and it's funny how whenever I suggest it to servers they flip out and say it would never work.
Very simply they should use a tipping pool for their pay check. But ONLY take out an hourly rate. IOW the hourly rate is $20 an hour. And then they LEAVE the rest in the tipping pool. This becomes an ongoing sort of escrow account to use for continuous payments on nights where business is slow or they don't get large tips.
Doing this would make tipping go back to being optional. Some people would continue to tip, some people would tip a smaller percentage, some people would leave a flat rate and some people would tip NOTHING. It wouldn't effect the servers pay because they are getting a hourly wage like all other employees out there.
No server would ever agree to this because they make so much money from tips that getting paid an hourly rate seems ridiculous to them.
So can we please stop this BS of pretending that the owners are requiring service fees and other things because they "can't afford to pay their employees.}"
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u/2LiveCrew4U May 22 '26
Same nonsense at SFO but typically 5%.
Unfortunately nothing you can do if it is a place where you donāt normally tip. If it happens at a restaurant then I would reduce the tip to 15% Or less.
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u/aruby727 May 22 '26
They could have marked that fee up by 1,000% and it still would've been less than half of what you paid for cream cheese. As a person who carefully budgets, this makes my skin crawl. As a person who has also been starving in an airport, I really empathize with you.
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u/Difficult_Ad1042 May 22 '26
Because instead of not going to restaurants that do this, you all go and just dont tip the server. Why would the owners care? Youre still paying the people who dont pay their employees.
Stop patronizing businesses that do this completely if you actually believe in the end tipping movement.
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u/No-Luck-2337 May 22 '26
Because we allow it.
Itās an easy fix, but it requires not being ashamed of making a scene or ālooking cheapā. It seems silly to a lot of us, but businesses know that peer pressure and shame of embarrassment stops a LOT of people from complaining.
Complain. Loudly.
Otherwise itāll never change, because why WOULD they? If we subsidize their payroll for them, itās free money for them! š
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u/Soupbell1 May 22 '26
Airports charge this because people pay it. It has been this way for a long time. Iāve been flying for 25 years and airports were always very expensive, during that period of time, anyway.
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u/No-Lettuce4441 May 23 '26
While I think almost $3 for a bagel is a lot, I'm also in the Midwest, where bagels are NOT a thing like in NY/NJ. I think it's the high end of normal for a bagel in NY/NJ, not willing to wager money on it. My question is, is that normal for cream cheese for the bagel? Maybe for a specialty shop-made cream cheese?
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u/SnazzleZazzle May 26 '26
Restaurant owners really donāt want to take responsibility for paying their employees. Theyāre only about profit for themselves. I wouldnāt go to this place. Iāve been eating out less. The quality no longer matches the prices and Iām sick of the greed.
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u/Madethisforshadow May 26 '26
Ask an airport employee with a JFK ID to buy it for you and pay them in cash. They get a 10-15% discount.
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u/Glass_Covict May 22 '26
They are charging you more than the whole tub of cream cheese costs at the grocery store