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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | April 10, 2013 11:59 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Julie Harhart |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Gratuities Credit Card Fee Protection Act |
| I plan to reintroduce House Bill 1353 from last session to create a freestanding act known as the Gratuities Credit Card Fee Protection Act. My reason for introducing this legislation is to address an issue brought to my attention by a constituent who works as a waitress. This constituent earns her base pay of $2.83 per hour plus tips, as most servers do. In many instances customers pay their bill with a credit card. It is common practice for credit card companies to charge business owners a three to four percent transaction fee per transaction. Apparently, some employers, as relayed to me by my constituent, pass this fee onto servers by taking the fee out of the tip customers left them on their credit card slip. Quite frankly, I was surprised to hear about this practice and I was equally surprised to find there is no law that prohibits this type of deduction. This practice, I believe, is unfair to tipped employees and such employees should not be penalized when customers choose to use a credit card. My legislation would prohibit credit card companies from assessing a transaction fee on the gratuity portion of any bill. I believe this will solve the problem. I hope you will join me in becoming a sponsor of this legislation. |
Introduced as HB1395