Recently, the US has been hit with a wave of ‘extra’ fees appearing on restaurant bills. These range from ‘living wage‘ to ‘inflation‘ charges. Well, now it seems these fees have arrived at Santa Clara – where one diner was hit with a 4% ‘surcharge fee‘. The very definition of surcharge means extra payment, so this 4% fee and its use remains a mystery. Nonetheless, you’d surely have to question the legality of dumping an extra 4% onto the end of a meal. This represented a total of $1.12 and was not part of the regular tax.

The restaurant in question was Grub Burger Bar which was named and shamed with a picture of the receipt. To add further shadiness, the surcharge was also followed by an asterisk, which usually denotes a written explanation. However, according to the diner, this was absent on the bill.

This wasn’t some kind of personal grudge either, as the customer even admitted the food was nice – yet was still left in the dark surrounding the mysterious surcharge. Having said this, one local seems to have gotten to the bottom of it and said this:

“It’s been there since at least 2019, but it was 2% then, and 3% in 2021. From the bottom of their menu: “In support of the rising minimum wage, a 4% surcharge will be added to all checks. It helps us to improve the pay of our team members both in the dining room and the kitchen. We appreciate your support as we continue with out commitment to provide extraordinary grub and hospitality.”

As is often the case with these, it begs the question of why the restaurant doesn’t just rise their prices slightly and then pay their staff for the extra profits. Understandably, random surcharges often don’t go down well with the public and like this scenario, they can lead to extra confusion.