[Por_sha911]

Below the total was a disclaimer from the unnamed restaurant saying, "Living wage fee of 18% added to each dine-in check. This fee goes directly to staff payroll and provides a living wage to our team."

The notice also said that any tips given would be pooled and distributed among the "entire team."

Others noted the fee must be made clear before customers sit down to eat — which the restaurant did, according to another comment on the original Threads post. It read: "100% of living wage fees are used for payroll. Rather than just increasing prices to pay staff more, this increase is guaranteed to go fully toward the staff and provides a wage to all employees that they can rely on for a steady income."

https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/restaurant-stirs-up-controversy-extra-surcharge-business-owner-should-embarrassed

Read the article - there are servers against this. A good server doesn't want to share their tips with the rest of the staff who don't put in the effort to give good service.

"guaranteed to go fully toward the staff" may include managers and the owners daughter who spends the entire shift in the back drinking diet coke and chatting on her phone.

If the notice is buried with small type in some obscure spot I would have strongly requested the charge to be removed from the bill. If the management refused I would have considered not tipping, leaving the server a note why, and (regardless of the outcome) never gone back there again.