Cafe Racer Coffee & Donuts, located just outside of Athens in Crawford, Georgia, announced on Instagram that it would be adding a 5% service charge to all receipts to help pay for staff health care.
For small businesses, health insurance can be expensive to offer employees. Chris Hart, owner of Cafe Racer, got the idea from a bakery in Atlanta called The Little Tart Bakeshop which added a 4% fee on all orders to provide its employees with health care. Hart said if another small business could do it, then so could he.
The 5% charge is clearly marked at the bottom of each receipt, and the money will be funneled into a separate bank account set up specifically to pay health insurance bills, Hart said. Insurance costs for Cafe Racer mostly depend on the employees and how many choose to opt in, he said. If most employees opt in, Cafe Racer pays around $500 per person every month, while the employee pays about $100 for a plan with dental and full health care. Cafe Racer also offers cheaper plans that allow employees to pay as little as $20 a month, he said.
Before the additional 5% increase, Hart could only offer full-time employees working 30 or more hours a week health care, he said. That plan covered about 50% of his employees, but he didn’t think it was fair that he couldn’t offer health care to the other half, he said. With plans to also open another location on Atlanta Highway, Hart decided now was a good time to try out the new 5% surcharge health care system.
Hart includes the 5% health care charge on the bottom of every receipt in an effort to be transparent about the situation. So far, the cafe has received positive feedback from customers and on social media, he said.
“Everyone’s been super nice and polite, so we haven’t had anyone be like ‘what the heck,’ and I think that’s part of the reason I felt comfortable taking this risk,” Hart said.
Many restaurants don’t offer health insurance for non-managerial positions. Cafe Racer front-of-house manager Jessica Wright has worked for several cafes and even held managerial positions before, but she had never been offered health insurance until Cafe Racer. She said she hopes that it becomes a new bare minimum in the industry where employees realize they shouldn’t settle for less.
“I think a big thing that’s happening right now in the service industry in general is people are realizing how much their labor is worth and how much they have to offer and how necessary these services are,” Wright said.
Miranda Lemal, a Cafe Racer employee and social media manager, said she has had a similar experience in the service industry. Before this, she had never been offered health care or benefits, she said.
“We all have been in the service industry for a pretty long time… and I think that everyone was just fed up with being treated, I guess kind of poorly by the other jobs we had,” Lemal said.
Wright said the joke in the service industry goes that if you think your arm is broken, you just have to sleep it off. Most people in the industry choose to either opt out or remain uninsured because it’s too expensive, Wright said. Other health care options were too expensive for Wright, Cafe Racer’s health care option is much more affordable, she said. She said she and other staff members were particularly excited about the option for dental insurance.
“We were just like, dental, oh my God I can’t remember the last time I went to a dentist,” Wright said.
The service industry is difficult and physically taxing, requiring employees to be on their feet for hours at a time, Hart said. He said he hopes that the 5% increase is successful and that it can show other businesses that it’s possible and customers are okay with it.
“I think at the end of the day I am pretty passionate about the idea that we can do better, and I shouldn’t be the only person doing this, and I really really hope, it’s my sincere hope that we crush it,” Hart said.
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February 24, 2022 at 10:00PM
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Cafe Racer Coffee & Donuts increases prices to offer employee health care - Red and Black
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