Perusing the bill after enjoying a meal in a San Francisco restaurant, you will likely see an additional charge, usually itemized below the sales tax, for “SF Mandate” or “Employee Mandate.” The charge could be 4% of the total tab, or 5% or 6%. Or a flat charge of $1.50 or $2.00 per diner. Or maybe there is no additional charge. The city of San Francisco requires businesses with twenty or more employees to provide heath coverage. This is so distasteful to restaurant operators, who value their workers so little and are so resentful of compensating them, they put the cost as a separate charge on the bills.
Tilman Fertitta, CEO and sole stockholder of Landry’s Restaurants, recently complained about providing health coverage to the company’s workers. In addition to Landry’s Seafood House Restaurants, the Landry’s company also operates Rainforest Cafe, McCormick & Schmick’s, The Chart House, Bubba Gump Shrimp and Claim Jumper. They also own the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and other entertainment properties, including aquariums, hotels, and various tourist attractions.
“Do you realize, all the restaurants in San Francisco, we all have an added charge?” he told CNBC. “We have a 3% or 4% or 5% add-on to the menu because they make us give all our employees full healthcare. We can’t afford to do it.” That explains why the SF restaurant scene is dying. (It’s not.)
Fertitta, who is also a reality TV star, has net worth of not quite $3 billion. Like most good conservatives, he dislikes an overreaching Federal Government meddling in state and local affairs. Except when he doesn’t like what local authorities are doing. “I feel like all states and cities should have to abide by what the federal government thinks instead of the whim of somebody that is elected for a couple of years.”
Meanwhile, believe it or not, many SF restaurants are tacking on the surcharge, but not spending it on employee health care.
