Restaurant owners 'mixed bag' on Anzac surcharge

Restaurant owners are a mixed bad when it comes to stinging their with an Anzac Day surcharge. Photo / Natalie Slade

Restaurant owners nationwide are a "mixed bag" when it comes to stinging their customers with a surcharge on Anzac Day.

It will be the first "Mondayised" Anzac Day public holiday since the Government introduced the changes.

The law states employees working on a public holiday receive time-and-a-half wages and an additional day-in-lieu.

Many businesses introduce levies to cover the extra costs, with some charging an extra 25 per cent.

Mekong Baby in Ponsonby has chosen not to impose a surcharge at all.

Office manager Jessica Lovison said the restaurant and bar had never used surcharges since its opening in January 2013.

"When we started with Mekong Baby we decided then and there not to go with surcharges. We found it turned a lot of people away," Ms Lovison said.

Ten O'Clock Cookie Bakery Cafe in Masterton will also not be adding the surcharge but manager Monique Kloeg said she could see both sides of the debate.

She said public holiday "Mondayisation" meant businesses were hit with "a double whammy" of higher expenses.

"I know there are cafes who will do a surcharge and I guess I understand why they do it," Miss Kloeg said.

"We're open for the customers, we're not doing it for our financial benefit and that's what being part of a community is all about."

Mission Bay Cafe manager Ioan Muresan said the eatery would be adding a 15 per cent surcharge on Saturday.

Restaurants without a surcharge were simply putting their prices up all year round to cover the higher staff costs, he said.

"I know there's a bit of adversity towards the 15 per cent and I understand where that comes from. When I go out I don't want to pay extra. But it's just a cost that's absorbed into day-to-day prices otherwise. It has to be paid somehow."

Martinborough's The Village Cafe owner Bruce Laurence said initially it did not have a surcharge but "at the end of the day we just lost money". The cafe's wage bill goes up 27.5 per cent on public holidays.

The cafe would add a 15 per cent surcharge on Anzac Monday but the extra income was unlikely to cover opening costs, he said.

"Every other cafe in town will be in the same boat," he said.

Restaurant Association of New Zealand chief executive Marisa Bidois said owners of the 1800 businesses the organisation represents were a "mixed bag" when it came to surcharges.

Surcharges have been the hottest topic on the organisation's hotline leading up to Anzac Day, she said.

More businesses were choosing to close on public holidays than ever before according to surveys done by the organisation, Miss Bidois said.

"It does seem that the stats are dropping for those who are charging a surcharge on the public holiday but there is still a strong number and the reason they do that is obviously because they costs increase on the day," she said.