Do you pay by credit card at restaurants?? - READ THIS!

I am a server at a restaurant. At the end of each shift I am handed the cash of my charged tips. However, a small percentage is always taken out. I just recently found out that is money my employer charges me for my credit card tips. I get 3% taken out of my credit card tips each shift. This money goes towards paying for the processing fee for credit card transactions.

I was so taken aback by this that I asked other restaurant personnel if they are likewise charged. After hearing that they weren't, I proceeded to google this subject. After a bit of research I concluded that owners of restaurants can choose to charge the servers for a portion of the cost of the processing fees. It is not illegal. I have also concluded that most corporately owned restaurants do not charge their servers.

Restaurants can either charge their servers on the total cost of the meal charged to the credit card, or just the tip amount. Either way, it's cruel in my eyes. This cost should be all on the owner. It is one of the many costs of owning a business. This is a business expense and should be treated as such.

I believe that most restaurants only charge the server based on the credit card tip amount if they charge them at all. So if you do pay by credit card and have the ability to, PLEASE for your server's benefit, leave the tip in cash. That way they can actually have all of the tip not 97 percent of it.