Is it legal to make a waiter pay for a credit card processing fee?

Question

I manage a restaurant in Maryland. Is it the restaurants responsibility or am I incorrect about this.

edit: To clarify. I think it is wrong to make the servers pay for it. Im trying to protect them, so don't bash me.

Answer 1

In the words of Jon Lovitz: "You idiot!". The credit card user is paying the restaurant not the waiter. The restaurant is responsible for any associated fees.

Answer 2

The processing fee is levied against the merchant and should be considered a cost of doing business. If you want to pass this expense off to your employees, I guess you could technically do that if you make it clear in your employment contract (written); however, this would be like charging them for part of the electric bill while they are working. Unless you provide 6 weeks of paid vacation a year, I think you'd find it very difficult to find anyone who agree to those conditions and even if they did, you'd have a lot of unhappy employees (and unhappy customers as a result).

(Note: I am not a lawyer. This is just my personal opinion based upon my knowledge of business practices.)

Answer 3

No, a waiter cannot be charged back the cost of processing credit cards. That's a cost of doing business to be borne by the business, not transferred to the staff.

You'd no more dock them the cost of your electricity or the cost of the food you serve so why could you possibly dock them the cost of processing a credit card?

Answer 4

When I was in college, I worked at a restaurant that engaged in this practice. I was very shocked and convinced it was illegal.

The labor board told me that it was legal...but that was MANY years ago, and you may want to check to see if the law has changed.

The rationale was that all they had to guarantee me was minimum wage.

Answer 5

Totally on the restaurant.
Don't you think wait-people are screwed ENOUGH?????