What is the New Crazy Extra 20% Denver Wants to Add to Restaurant Tabs?

Restaurants in Denver are some of the best in the nation; but are they worth adding an extra 20% to your tab for? Denver's mayor may be pushing this idea through.

Denver Mayor Discusses 20% Restaurant Fee During Podcast

You see a lot of stories these days coming from conversations that happen during a podcast, here's another one. There's a podcast about Denver that Denver Mayor Mike Johnston was on recently, talking about this new fee he has in mind.

Living in Loveland I don't get a lot of chances to get to Denver to eat at one of its restaurants; I can tell you, that if they actually do end up tacking on an additional 20% to "checks" you can count me out.

Why Does the Denver Mayor Want to Add 20% to Restaurant Tabs?

According to the Denver Gazette, the Mayor's concerned about restaurants surviving in Denver, as about 400 have closed over the last few years; a big part of that, according to the Mayor is the rise in minimum wage.

In the podcast the Mayor was discussing a Colorado bill that's under consideration, which states:

The bill requires a local government that has enacted a code or an ordinance imposing a minimum wage that exceeds the state minimum wage to enact another code or ordinance on or before September 1, 2025, that:

 

• Imposes a tip offset for food and beverage employees in an amount that equals the amount by which the local minimum wage exceeds the state minimum wage, plus $3.02; and
• Takes effect on or before October 1, 2025.

With Denver being one of the cities where the minimum wage is set above the state's minimum of $11.79/hour for tipped employees, Mayor Johnston's idea is to apply a $20% service fee instead of the offset:

From the City Cast Denver podcast via the Denver Gazette:

Interestingly for us, if you had a service charge that comes above the line in the bill, which means it's also taxed — if you had a $100 tab and now you put a 20% service charge, you pay $120, and we tax $120.

 

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The city would then share that collected tax back with the restaurants, in Johnston's plan, according to Denver Gazette.

Honestly, all these numbers make me crazy, and I don't completely understand; all I hear is that it will me cost 20% more to dine in Denver.