These days, eating at a restaurant isn’t cheap. Prices aren’t increasing as quickly as they once were, but they’re still growing. The National Restaurant Association reports that full-service restaurant prices, which jumped by 9% in 2022, have slowed down and increased by only 3.6% as of December 2024.
As such, many still find that getting their favorite restaurant meal costs a little more than what they’re comfortable paying.
Not only that, but eaters have begun reporting that some restaurants now add strange, miscellaneous charges to their bills. For example, one diner said that she saw a line item on her bill for employee insurance. Another alleged that she was charged a “prep fee” to have a bartender shake her margarita.
Now, a user on TikTok claims that there’s a new charge to look out for: a sharing fee.
What is a “sharing fee”?
In a video with over 1.2 million views, TikTok user @lalius.november shows a menu at a restaurant. At the bottom of the menu, there is a line that simply reads “Sharing Charge: $5,” something to which the TikToker reacts with disgust.
“This is some of the cheapest tactics I’ve seen and it turns me off any restaurant that is SO GREEDY, they will charge you for sharing your food?” she asks in the caption. “So if my friend and I planned to split a dish bc we’re not too hungry, we’ll be charged an extra $5?! On top of tipping?”
“And people will make excuses for the restaurant which is exactly how the tipping culture in America came to be,” she continues. “y’all just roll over and take it.”
As noted by Yahoo!, sharing fees of between $2 and $5 are relatively common and are implemented to help restaurants make up supposed lost profits from two diners sharing one meal.
Making up for lost profits?
While many commenters supported the TikToker’s assertion that these practices were greedy, some pointed to the aforementioned “lost profits” argument in defense of the charge.
To that, the TikToker offered a response video.
In response, the TikToker simply asks, “Why do I care? Why do you care?”
“America’s the only place where you’ll find people caring more about a business’s profits than their own pockets, because why would I care?” she starts. “In case you guys don’t understand, there’s no limit to how much money a business can make. The only thing that limits how much you can cut costs and maximize profit is morals and ethics, which in turn become the law.”
As the video continues, the TikToker notes that fees in restaurants are related to tipping culture and that tipping culture itself is a relic of slavery. Prior to the Civil War, tipping was relatively controversial, with people decrying the practice as “blackmail” and “servile.”
However, after the Civil War, more freed Black people began entering the workforce—specifically, in service roles. Rather than pay them wages, employers encouraged guests to offer them a tip for their services. As a result, tipping increasingly replaced employer-paid wages as the primary way to pay service workers’ base wages instead of being a bonus.
Now, restaurants can legally pay their workers very little, with the federal tipped minimum wage being $2.13 and only seven states requiring that workers be paid the minimum wage on top of tips.
It is for these reasons that the TikToker says she’s unsympathetic to restaurants adding additional fees on top of a meal.
“That’s not good, guys,” she says, referring to America’s tipping culture. “And that happened because businesses wanted to make money—and you guys were like, ‘That makes sense.’”
@lalius.november This is some of the cheapest tactics I’ve seen and it turns me off any restaurant that is SO GREEDY, they will charge you for sharing your food? So if my friend and I planned to split a dish bc we’re not too hungry, we’ll be charged an extra $5?! On top of tipping? And people will make excuses for the restaurant which is exactly how the tipping culture in America came to be; y’all just roll over and take it.
♬ original sound – GyatMovieClips
Others experiencing extra charges
In the comments section, many users shared the TikToker’s distaste for sharing fees.
“I just saw this for the first time last night — and it was an $8 charge like excuse me?? When the chicken parm is already $40…?” asked a user.
“Hopefully you didn’t leave a tip,” added another. “Idgaf if it wasn’t the servers fault. I’m blaming the restaurant and everyone single person that works there from the owner to the cooks.”
“Sharing charges, extra plate charges, kitchen staff charges, service fee charges, credit card charges…. And they want me to pay the higher costs on mediocre food & tip,” declared a third.
The Daily Dot reached out to @lalius.november via TikTok DM.
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
