Restaurant adds surcharge to cover employee health care costs

Austin restaurant Foreign and Domestic added a three percent surcharge to all of their customers’ bills in order to cover employees' health care.

According to the founders and co-owners of the restaurant, Nathan Lemley and Sarah Heard, customers don’t mind the additional cost.

“The people who come into our restaurant, our guests, are generally very excited about it,” said Lemley to FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on Friday.

When Varney asked about the impact on customer’s tipping, Heard responded:  “Tipping well doesn’t mean that they have access to health care."

“As an individual, getting a policy is almost impossible,” She said. “They’re happy to get a tiny percentage less [in] tips so that they can have access to that health care.“

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Lemley explained that the surcharge helps to cover a large amount of the costs.

“Right now the three percent surcharge goes to pay for half of the cost of it," he said. "There is a possibility that it can be a pay a little bit more for the staff.”