Like many restaurants struggling to balance wages for tipped and non-tipped staff, Oakhart Social has adopted a 3% Wellness contribution to supplement non-tipped employees’ benefits.

WHAT IS A SERVICE CHARGE/FEE?

Simply, a service fee is an additional charge added to the pre-taxed bill that directly supplements the wages of non-tipped employees. By Virginia law, kitchen staff may not be included in the tip pool. The labor laws only allow tips to be shared with staff involved in the “chain of service”.
Well known statistics and our personal experience have shown us that tipped employees make 2.2 to 2.6 times more than non-tipped employees. It is our goal to bridge this gap and join the pioneers of our industry paving the way for a more balanced workplace.
Many restaurants throughout the country have adopted similar service fees to promote better quality of life for their staff and the growth of the industry.

Some guests will ask the question “How is this our problem? You should just raise your prices.” And they are essentially correct. Price increase is a common way for restaurants to cover increases in costs. However, these increases affect top line revenue but very little of this increase trickles down to expenses. Price increases actually create a bigger disproportion between front and back wages. The 3% fee is essentially “raising prices”; it is just doing so in a way that enforces a more rounded and direct solution to this wage gap issue.

This does not supplement the gratuity for the front of the house and we encourage you to still tip as you see fit. This 3% fee will appear as a line item on your bill. The earnings from this fee will directly benefit our kitchen staff ONLY. Our servers, bartenders, hosts, and bussers continue to receive only tip compensation and appreciate your continued generosity.
After much deliberation, we believe that the 3% wellness fee is the best solution to take better care of the hard-working members of our restaurant team and we hope you feel this way too! We thank you for your loyalty, your understanding and your desire to help pioneer a better wage structure and working conditions for the aspiring chefs of Charlottesville and beyond…