Restaurant Service Fee, Surcharge & Tipping Rule Watch

Why this is recommended

A 20 percent service charge that is not a tip, an 18 percent automatic gratuity on a table of six, or a $3 delivery service fee on top of a 30 percent markup is $10 to $40 a meal; knowing the rule in your city is worth the membership by the second dinner.

What the Tab covers

Who it is for

Everyone who eats out or orders in, and the servers whose income depends on how the rules land.

When it runs

Cities and states pass fee rules on weekdays and diners meet them on Friday night

Scope

Service charge, surcharge, automatic gratuity and price display rules by city and state; state junk fee laws as applied to restaurants, bars and delivery; tipped minimum wage and tip credit changes by state and city; DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub and Instacart fee caps and disclosures; tip screen, tip pooling and tip theft enforcement; national chain surcharge and tipping policy changes; federal and state tax treatment of tips

Suggested task

The objective your Tab starts with. You can edit every line of it once the Tab is yours.

Mandatory service charge, health surcharge and automatic gratuity rules by city and state, junk fee laws applied to restaurants and delivery, tip credit and tipped minimum wage changes that shift the tipping norm, delivery app fee caps and service fee disclosures, tip screen and tip pooling enforcement, chain policy changes on surcharges and tax treatment of tips, with the city, state or chain first and what a diner is actually required to pay.

Track restaurant, bar and delivery fees and tipping rules in the United States. Report only confirmed, source-backed items from the last 7 days: service charge, surcharge, automatic gratuity and price display rules passed, taking effect or enforced by any city or state; state junk fee laws applied to restaurants and delivery with effective dates; tipped minimum wage and tip credit changes by state and city; DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub and Instacart fee cap, service fee and disclosure changes; tip screen, tip pooling and tip theft enforcement actions and settlements; surcharge and tipping policy changes at national chains; and federal and state tax treatment of tips. Prefer city and state legislatures and attorneys general, Department of Labor, platform pages, chain announcements and established restaurant reporting; ignore viral receipt posts without a source. Put the city, state, platform or chain first in the title and state what a diner is required to pay and what is optional. Use high severity for a rule taking effect within 30 days in a metro over one million people, a fee cap change on a major delivery app, or a tipped wage change of $1 or more. Return no more than 6 findings. Push each as a finding with a title, a two-sentence summary, sections for what changed, who it affects, what a diner owes, the date, and the source link. If nothing qualifies, push nothing and submit the run receipt.