An Australian cafe owner has hit back against customers who criticised her for having a public holiday surcharge over Easter. Hospitality venues across the country have been slugging Aussies 5 to 20 per cent extra during this extended weekend, and it hasn’t gone down well with some people.
A poll of more than 4,000 Yahoo Finance readers found 38 per cent didn’t think public holiday surcharges were acceptable. Ruby Rule runs three cafes in Brisbane and she said one customer called her the “scum of the earth” for having a surcharge, while another wanted to take out their frustration on her.
“Someone left a charming comment, saying that they would throw their coffee at me if I tried to sting them with a 15 per cent surcharge,” she said.
“If you’re pressed about paying 60 to 80 cents more on your coffee, then go ahead and throw it at me and make it a double shot.”
She said on Good Friday, one of her cafes was incredibly busy, another just about broke even, and her third lost money.
Rule said she usually worked up to 13 hours during weekends like this, but she doesn’t get penalty rates and pays herself what she can.
Do you have a story? Email stew.perrie@yahooinc.com
She added that charging a public holiday surcharge wasn’t designed to be a money-grabbing scheme, but it goes a small way in keeping the lights on.
“I’m still making less than a normal weekday,” she said.
“Imagine running a team covering wages, working the floor yourself, and then going home with less money than you started with, because that’s what I’m dealing with.”
When she was open on Queensland’s October public holiday last year, she brought in $4,705 across her three cafes, $719 of which came from the 15 per cent surcharge.
The staff wages for that Monday public holiday alone were $3,500.
On a normal day, wages for nine staff working 55 hours across three shops would be $1,800.
“This is to show that business owners do not add the surcharge so they can make more money. It’s purely to try and offset some of that cost,” she said.
Dan Dick runs into similar problems for his Melbourne cafes during public holidays.
“The award dictates that on public holidays, staff are entitled to double time,” he told Yahoo Finance.
