ST PAUL, Minn. — Junk fees — those prices added onto the bill at the end of a transaction — are something Governor Tim Walz and Democratic lawmakers believe everyone can come together to oppose.
"Call it a convenience fee, call it a usage fee, call it a facility fee, call it an inflation fee. Call it whatever you want. It is a junk fee if you need to pay it to get the good or service," said Rep. Emma Greenman, (DFL) Minneapolis, one of the bill's authors.
Junk fees have become especially notorious from online ticket sales, when the ticket price balloons into a much bigger final number.
But Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan and the lawmakers behind Minnesota's junk fee ban made it clear the junk fees they're banning include charges added onto restaurant tabs.
"We've all had that experience at a restaurant when the bill comes with an ambiguous service fee," Flanagan said. "We pause and we wonder if that's a tip for the server."
"People aren't going to want to pay $15 for a hamburger. I said they're already paying $15, you're just telling them it's $12 then putting the $3 at the end," Greenman said.
And that has the hospitality industry striking back today.
"Our industry getting lumped into this 'junk fees' bill – it's not the same. We're not Ticketmaster," said Angie Whitcomb, President and CEO of Hospitality Minnesota.
Whitcomb said restaurants here add service fees or wellness fees to help close the pay inequity between servers and kitchen workers — tipped and untipped employees — as well as supplementing or providing benefits.
"And our industry before this bill was passed is regulated and required to disclose when those fees are on there. So they're not dishonest. They're not deceptive. They're certainly not hidden," Whitcomb said.
The junk fee bill received a lot of discussion this year at the legislature. And stakeholders asked lawmakers to differentiate what's considered a junk fee.
But lawmakers kept the definition broad, and insist it will be good for more than just the consumer.
"By banning these fees, we think our tipped-wage workers will benefit more because there are no secrets on the bill," Flanagan said.
"It is good for Minnesota businesses. It is good for small businesses especially," said Sen. Lindsey Port, an author of the bill.
To that point, Whitcomb couldn't disagree more.
"Our big concern is we were lumped into deceptive business practices and that is the last thing the hospitality industry is," Whitcomb said.
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