I believe that a good lawyer could make an argument that such a charge on employees is technically the levying of a tax, which, since it by-passes the Department of Revinue's General Supervision (as described in 84.08.010 of the Revised Code of Washington), is illegal. It is, in fact a form of the same unfairness that caused indentured servatude.

However, the courts are run by dishonest businesspeople (who are constitutionally exempt from the will of the people) I doubt that such an argument would be accepted unless the Judge was exceptional, the case presented superbly, and the defense botched.

[Can you tell that I have no faith in the Justice System?]

BTW - if you haven't already let it go, and if you aren't planning to send it to a recovery company, save that hard drive: I'll be in town in a few days and I'd like to try my hand at amateur data recovery.

Read "days" as "about a month."

It doesn't seem right and is definitely cheap! I'm going to email my lawyer friend and ask her!

Geez - I haven't worked in the restaurant biz for a while, but that seems unduly harsh. But I have seen all kinds of unethical behavior, so what do I know. Retail stores do not charge its employees, directly, for using credit card/debit machines. It is the cost of running bidness.

I would contact the Washington state labor and industry, ask questions.

I think the paying public would be interested to know about this policy too. I would purposely pay cash.

And don't be discouraged about church growth. It takes time. There are so many plant churches in Vancouver, I hear friends say they aren't sure where to go. Seekers can be fickle. Keep to the work.

Let me start by saying that is the slimiest thing an employer could do. Hypothetically, a server in this position should be looking for another place to earn tips; it is obvious that this employer does not care if you are around. Go work somewhere else. Forget about the courts and complaining and go somewhere else.

That aside, when a patron purchases a meal for say $20 and adds a tip of $5, the credit card company, using 3% as the fee scale, garnishes 75 cents. That leaves $24.25. If you split the fee between the meal portion and the tip it is 60 cents for the meal and 15 cents for the tip. It could reasonably be argued that the $5 tip has nothing to do with the restaurant, they did not charge it and they are not collecting it. It is the sole responsibility of the server, so the server should be charged the fee. If the restaurant chooses to cover the fee for the server, and there are 5 of these transactions in an hour, they have effectually given the server a 75 cent per hour raise.

This prompts me to make a couple of comments. Credit card companies are evil. You should rarely use a credit card—cash is the way to go, especially for tips (no fees and the server can hide it from the IRS more easily). If a merchant ever asks you if you want credit or debit—always say debit, it lowers the fee.

Employers can be slimy, but here in America, you are not an indentured servant and there are other places where an experience server can work where this is not an issue.

All I know is that stinks but be happy you are in WA and not Idaho because servers here are not even required to be paid minimum wage. most of the servers here are paid about 3.50 an hour. They are expected to make so much in tips an hour to make up the rest.....needless to say, service sucks here.

I'll honestly say that I don't care all too much about it. It doesn't end up being that much per server (hypothetically) and we do get paid way too much for minimum wage 'round here. But it is the principle of it that is outrageous.
Jason, I do think you have a point there about the tips having nothing to do with the restaurant...although, I have recently heard of another restaurant that requires their servers to pay the full percentage on all credit card charges!

Well that is just stupid. What is the server supposed to do? "Hey, mister diner, that credit card is eating into my tip; could you toss me another buck?" Which is pretty much what the gas stations force you to do by having different prices for cash and credit customers.

Credit cards reek.

When I was in retail (and from what I have heard reciently) the credit card companies don't usually charge a percentage of the total, they charge a flat fee per transaction. If the said restaraunt isn't getting this deal, they are getting screwed and shoudl NEVER pass that screwing on to the staff. Tell them to stop taking credit cards and see how much their sales dip! I agree with Ty - I don't think it's legal at all, and contacting the Labor Board or the Better Business Beaureu would put the ball in their court: I smell a class-action suit!

That being said, I don' think I can agree with you at all on this blog Ryan because you used my #1 most hated word in the english language: irregardless. I even have a blog about how that is not a word, and making up long words that don't exist does not make you sound smarter. The "ir" and the "re" in irregardless mean the same thing and since it's similar to a double negative, "irregardless" really means "guardless" which isn't a word anyway. I still love you Ryan, but try to use real words from now on.