'Obamacare' Surcharge Hits The Menu At Brooklyn Pizzeria
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- "Obamacare" is on the menu of a Brooklyn restaurant. A new surcharge to cover the costs of healthcare may be hard for some customers to swallow.
As CBS2's Tracee Carrasco reported, Franny's in Park Slope added something new to their menu this week, a 3 percent surcharge on all bills to help them cover the cost of healthcare for their employees.
"We've always been criticized for prices so we said, 'Hold on -- before we start putting $22, $23 pizza on the menu, let's be transparent about what that money is actually going towards,'" executive chef John Adler said.
The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, requires all companies with 50 or more full-time employees to provide their staff with fairly priced health insurance. Franny's qualifies because its owners also run two other establishments.
"We embraced Obamacare, and in realizing the cost, covered as much as we could on our own, and then asked our guests to contribute a very small amount," Adler said.
While the pizzeria charges $20 for a pie and $19 for a pasta dish, having to foot the entire bill for their employees' healthcare would be costly.
"Really we're trending upwards of a quarter of a million dollars of increased costs which is an enormous expense when you consider the fact the top item on our menu is $20," Adler said.
Customers were split on how they feel about the surcharge.
"I'm not sure I believe in the principle. I think that health care should be paid by the employer as a benefit or with some shared cost with the employee," Stacey Chanin Reed said.
"I appreciate the fact that they're upfront about it. We need to know what our money is going for, and if it's going for healthcare that's a bonus," Erik King countered.
The restaurant said if the surcharge doesn't end up working out, they may have to raise prices even more to help with the cost of healthcare for their employees.