Following up on the Healthy SF loophole Ed Lee identified earlier, the Board of Supes approved an initiative to close the loophole last week. Remember, the main issue: most restaurants adding a percentage to each bill for employee health funds, ended up absorbing the funds because employees weren't using the money. Now every employer collecting a surcharge from customers is required to have written materials that explain employees rights to their health care accounts, which should help lessen the "roughly $50.1 million" that was returned back to businesses in 2010.
Luna Park manager Ashleigh Plasterer still thinks the Healthy SF surcharge system is "a lose-lose:" “You either don’t charge a surcharge and the business loses money, or you do charge a surcharge and your employees could possibly lose money.” She's referring to the fact that some diners actually deduct the amount of the surcharge from servers' tips. Meanwhile, in most other U.S. cities, restaurants subsidizing health care for minimum wage restaurant employees is generally the exception, not the rule.
· Loophole Closed on the Health Care Ordinance [Mission Loc@l]
· All Healthy SF Coverage [~ ESF ~]
· Healthy SF [Official Site]
[Photo: OpenTable]