"no longer can" should be "no longer will." They can do it if they choose to, they just choose not to.

I've definitely paid more than 37 cents for the service charge. I remember one place in particular but I know there have been others. 2% is common which would be 40 cents on a $20 order.

If a restaurant claims that they need extra money for credit card purchases, I think they are lying. It has long been proven that credit card customers spend substantially more money than cash customers. When McDonald's started accepting credit cards, their average purchase amount increased by almost 50 percent. If restaurants stopped accepting credit cards, many of them would go out of business.

I agree with you.

I'm confused. How do they add money to the total without giving you a bill and a receipt? What if you pay cash?

The minimum wage in Florida is $10 per hour, but that doesn't include "tipped" employees.

Paying waitstaff workers $6.85 an hour assures two things: constant turnover and mediocre service. Something better comes along and they're out the door, and who can blame them? Much better to pay them more per hour, $10 or even higher. Probably more economical for the restaurant in the long run, cutting turnover costs and assuring more competent service (and thus more return business).

In Florida, there is a minimum wage for most employees which I believe is $10/hour. For tipped employees, there is a separate minimum wage rate of $6.98. (There are exceptions to the minimum wage ). Typically, waiters, bartenders etc are considered tipped employees whereas a cook or dishwasher are not. So I would assume that these other workers are paid at or above the higher minimum wage. I have read theat a "Service Charge" can effectively be used by the management to be applied by the management to meet the minimum wage requirement, thus I believe that to discount the tip due to a service charge would wrongly hurt the Wait staff.
However, I migrate to someplace like McDonalds or Culvers. I would argue that the workers there would all be non-tipped employees and therefore should be paid the $10.00 minimum wage.
A tipped employee would be foolish to working the job without getting tips that would exceed the $10 minimum wage. Since the tip is based upon meal value, the best of these jobs would be in high volume, high cost restaurants. A meal of $100 at 20% tip would be $20. Depending upon sharing pool split , that could easily exceed the higher minimum wage. Several tables an hour could be a nice wage. Thus, a waitress who says she is paid $6.85/ hour is only telling a portion of the story.

Yes it does. There is a "basic" minimum wage of $6.98 for servers, but if the tips are not enough, the employer must make up the difference to $10.00...

"Effective September 30, 2021 the minimum wage in Florida increased to $10.00 an hour, and the required cash wage for tipped employees increased to $6.98."

:pray::pray: Thank you.

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Current minimum wage is $10.00 except for tipped employees which is $6.98

Both to go up September 1.

Use the Seinfeld tip wizard

But...

If, when tips are added in, if the employee doesn't average at least $10/hr, the employer must make up the difference...

The Seinfeld Tip Wizard is not available on Amazon, but you can buy an "Easy Tip Card" for $5.49. The original Seinfeld tip wizard was $200 in 1998.

How much did they charge? Really not a fan of the way it’s done

I can just hear the explosion if all restaurants simply raised their prices 20% to give to the employees in lieu of tipping.

Yes there are but certainly not all of them