The New York City Council passed a bill Wednesday that gave restaurants the option to charge a 10% “COVID-19 Recovery Charge” to help struggling businesses.
The legislation, which was introduced by south Shore Councilman Joe Borelli passed by a vote of 46-2 and is awaiting Mayor Bill de Blasio signature.
“This bill will give restaurants the freedom they need to increase revenue to help cover rapidly rising labor and compliance costs and keep them in business. Restaurants in New York City have been getting crushed by massively increasing costs over the last five years and their options for increasing revenue have been narrowing,” Borelli told the Staten Island Advance.
New York City restaurants can resume indoor dining on Sept. 30 at a quarter of capacity, with temperature checks for customers and other restrictions.
Restaurants that want to add the fee must put a notice on the bottom of menus and on the customer’s tab.
The city of 8 million residents reported nearly 9,100 new COVID-19 cases out of a million tests conducted in August. That compares with nearly 10,000 positive results in July and 11,700 in June, when the city was running about 850,000 tests a month.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.