City Council sends bill to Nutter to keep tips in servers’ pockets

Philadelphia City Council has approved a bill to prevent restaurants from deducting credit card fees from servers’ tips.

KYW reports Mayor Michael Nutter is expected to sign the bill that would prohibit the practice, despite an objection from the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association, which has argued the high credit card fees could put some restaurants out of business.

 

“Right now the credit card companies and banks can unilaterally charge a fee for their credit card processing fee and that fee is paid by the restaurant or the small business,” PRA President Patrick Conway told WHYY/NewsWorks’ Elizabeth Fiedler last month. “We think a better approach would be to pass legislation that would not allow the banks and credit card companies to assess a credit card processing fee on tipped portions of the bill.”

Update: There’s more to this bill than the win for servers. Metro has the account of tension between Councilmen Bill Green and Jim Kenney over the bill and Kenney’s involvement in a hoagie-judging contest. It ended with Kenney advising Green not to choke on a hoagie. Both laughed it off on Twitter.