Carolyn D. Richmond was featured in the NBC New York broadcast "NYC Restaurant's 2-Percent 'Surcharge Mandates' Raise Eyebrows." A full interview can be heard in the January 4, 2016, airing, but a synopsis is below.
A popular restaurant in Manhattan has caught the attention of its customers due to a 2-percent surcharge that is being place on their bills.
The restaurant noted that they added the surcharge because they were "just looking at what they needed to do to operate successfully in New York's increasingly expensive environment."
Fox Rothschild's Carolyn Richmond said the surcharge appears to be an attempt to offset rising restaurant costs, especially due to the fact that minimum wage has increased and employees must receive health care.
The added surcharge is common in other cities across the country, such as Los Angles, San Francisco and Miami because there are no legal restrictions to including such a fee on the bill.
In New York, however, "it violates the city law," Richmond said. "You're at risk of a $500 per plate fine. But the problem is DCA hasn't really been enforcing the rule, absent a direct consumer complaint."
Click here to listen to full broadcast
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