Service fees and junk-fee laws in 2027: which states let a restaurant add a fee, and how to show it

You are reprinting the January menu and thinking about a 3% "kitchen fee" instead of another round of price rises. About one in three US full-service restaurants is already in a state with a restaurant fee rule, and Illinois joins on 1 January 2027.

In most of the US you may still add a mandatory fee, but how you show it is state law; no federal fee rule covers restaurants. We found eight states with restaurant fee rules in force. California, Colorado and Florida allow a fee shown wherever prices appear. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Virginia let only a gratuity-type charge sit outside the menu price. Washington wants the staff share printed. Illinois's junk fee law starts on 1 January 2027; we could not read its final text. Last checked: 5 November 2026.

Does the FTC junk fee rule apply to restaurants?

No. The FTC's Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees (16 CFR Part 464) took effect on 12 May 2025 and covers only live-event tickets and short-term lodging. A restaurant fee is judged under state law, plus the FTC's general power to act against deceptive pricing case by case.

That matters because many answers online blend the two. A hotel restaurant is not pulled into the federal rule by the hotel; the federal rule is about the room price. For a restaurant, the questions are which state you are in, what you call the charge, and where it appears.

Which states regulate restaurant service fees in 2027?

This table is built from the statute or the state agency's own guidance, read on 5 November 2026. "Read" says what we could open. Where we could not open the official text, we say so rather than repeat a summary.

Three more to watch. Illinois's Junk Fee Ban Act (SB 1486) was signed in June 2026 and takes effect on 1 January 2027, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The General Assembly's site refused our connection, so we have not read the enacted text and have not listed it in the table. A law-firm summary of the bill as passed says food service establishments do not have to put fees in the displayed price but must disclose them before the purchase is final, and that only the Attorney General can enforce it. Oregon's 2025 law (SB 430) is reported to cover online prices from 1 January 2026; we could not open the enrolled text. New York City's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection proposed an all-in pricing rule in July 2026 (comments closed 7 August); we found no final rule.

Massachusetts note: mass.gov blocks automated requests, so we read the regulation and the Attorney General's guidance and restaurant tip sheet from archive.org copies made in May and June 2026.

How many restaurants does this reach? Our analysis of the BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages for the first quarter of 2026 (NAICS 722511, private full-service restaurants, state totals, accessed 5 November 2026): 85,227 of the country's 265,527 full-service restaurants, about one in three, are in the eight states with a restaurant fee rule. With Illinois's 10,080 from January, it rises to 95,307, or 36%. California alone has 31,270.

What does each state actually require?

Short answers, one state at a time, for the owner who only needs their own.

California. You may charge a mandatory fee without building it into menu prices, as long as it is shown clearly, with an explanation of its purpose, wherever prices appear: menu, website, online ordering, ads. On our reading, "A 4% fee is added to all checks" gives no purpose; "A 4% fee funds kitchen staff wages" does, if it is true. The carve-out does not cover third-party delivery platforms "or any other food delivery platform". The Attorney General's hidden fees page adds one useful line on card fees: a card fee a guest can avoid by paying another way is not a mandatory fee. Our service charge guide covers the California rule in more depth.

Colorado. The default rule is one total price. A restaurant complies instead if every offer that shows a price also shows the service charge's percentage or amount and says, accurately, how it is distributed, and it uses no deceptive, unfair or unconscionable pricing practices (6-1-737(2)(b)(I)). "Supports our team" is vague; "65% goes to hourly kitchen and floor staff, 35% to health insurance" is a description. If the charge funds pay, Colorado's 2027 wage rates and its $3.02 tip credit are in our Colorado and Denver guide.

Connecticut. The strictest of the group. A "kitchen fee", "wellness fee" or "inflation surcharge" has to be in the menu price. The exception in 42-536(b)(2)(B) covers a mandatory gratuity: say that it exists and how it is calculated before the guest orders. Taxes may stay out if disclosed before purchase. A delivery fee that depends on the order or the address may also stay out, if you say it exists wherever the price shows and give the amount before checkout.

Florida. You can charge it, but show it everywhere: menu, written contract, website and app, in type at least as large as your item descriptions, with the amount and its purpose. The bill must state the percentage or amount, and each receipt needs separate lines for gratuity, operations charge and sales tax. A fixed-price meal or package whose price is disclosed upfront is exempt, and the statute gives guests no private right to sue over it.

Massachusetts. Mandatory fees belong in the advertised price. The Attorney General's guidance allows one carve-out: a service charge based on party size, paid entirely to wait staff, service employees or service bartenders under G.L. c.149, s.152A, and disclosed wherever pricing appears. It may be shown as a percentage. The tip sheet's own example: "18% tip added to parties of 6 or more", on the menu.

Minnesota and Virginia. Near-identical wording. Every offer or ad that includes prices must clearly disclose the percentage of any automatic and mandatory gratuities. The carve-out names only gratuities, so on our reading a fee that is not a gratuity belongs in the price.

Washington. An older wage law, not a pricing law. If you add an automatic service charge for food, drink or entertainment, the menu and the itemized receipt must say what share goes to the employees who served the guest.

Does Colorado's law give guests 14 days and 18% interest?

Not for restaurants. The 14-day written demand and the 18% interest in C.R.S. 6-1-737(5)(b) apply to disputes between landlords and tenants or commercial lessors and lessees, as the signed act says in the same sentence. For a restaurant, a breach is a deceptive trade practice under the Colorado Consumer Protection Act, and subsection (5)(c) says a guest does not need to send a demand first. The Attorney General "may adopt rules"; it is not required to.

Several published summaries, and the AI answers built on them, attach the 14 days and the interest to restaurant fees. Read subsection (5) yourself.

Can I add a service fee in my state? A decision rule

Run this before the fee reaches a menu, a booking page or a social post with a price in it.

CAN I ADD A MANDATORY FEE?

1. Is the restaurant in CT?
   Fee is a mandatory gratuity, shown with how it is calculated
   before the guest orders?  Yes -> allowed.  No -> put it in the price.

2. Is it in MA?
   Party-size service charge, 100% to service staff, shown wherever
   prices appear?  Yes -> allowed.  No -> put it in the price.

3. Is it in MN or VA?
   Is the fee an automatic gratuity, with its percentage shown in
   every offer or ad that has prices?  Yes -> allowed.
   No -> put it in the price.

4. Is it in CA, CO or FL?
   Show it everywhere prices appear:
   CA -> add what the fee is for.
   CO -> add the percentage and how it is distributed.
   FL -> add the amount and purpose, same type size as item
         descriptions, and separate receipt lines.

5. Is it in WA?
   Print the staff share on the menu and the itemized receipt.

6. Anywhere else: no restaurant-specific rule we found, but the
   state's general consumer law still bans deceptive pricing.
   Show the fee before the guest orders, never only on the check.

7. Is the restaurant in IL (from 1 January 2027), OR (online prices)
   or NYC? Check the final text before you rely on any step above.
   IL, as reported: disclose any fee before the purchase is final.

Get advice before you print one fee wording for venues in more than one state, before you call a fee anything other than a gratuity in CT, MA, MN or VA, and before you rely on the Illinois or Oregon rules.

Fee or price rise? A worked example

A 70-seat restaurant averages a $42 check before tax and serves about 1,500 checks a month. The owner wants $2,200 more a month to cover a wage increase.

The menu route raises the same money with no disclosure rules, no receipt line and no guest asking at the table what the fee is for. The fee route keeps your headline prices lower, which is why owners choose it, but it creates a disclosure duty everywhere your prices appear, including third-party listings you do not control. Our menu price calculator works out the rounded prices, and the guide to raising menu prices in 2027 covers which items to move first.

If the fee is paid out to staff, the tax and wage side changes too: a mandatory charge is wages, not tips, and counts in overtime. That is covered in the service charge guide and the tip pooling guide.

Where must the fee appear? A display checklist

Every state above that allows the fee asks for it wherever prices are shown. Walk this list before 1 January:

FEE DISPLAY CHECKLIST (tick each place that shows a price)

[ ] Printed menu, next to or directly under the prices
[ ] Menu board and table tents with prices
[ ] QR menu and online ordering, before checkout
[ ] Website menu page and any PDF menu
[ ] Booking page, if it shows set menus or deposits
[ ] Event and private dining contracts (FL: the written contract)
[ ] Ads and social posts that mention a price
[ ] Third-party listings and delivery apps that show your prices
[ ] The check: name the fee, the % or amount (FL: separate lines)
[ ] Staff script: what the fee is, where it goes, that it is not a tip

A wording you can adapt in California, Colorado, Florida and Washington, or in states without a restaurant rule. In Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Virginia, a charge outside the price has to be a gratuity or, in Massachusetts, a party-size charge paid to service staff, so do not call it "not a tip" there.

A [3.5]% service charge is added to every check. It pays for
[what it funds, for example hourly kitchen and floor wages].
It is not a tip. [Colorado: 65% goes to hourly kitchen and floor
staff and 35% funds staff health insurance.] [Washington: [x]% of
this charge is paid to the employees who served you.] Any tip you
leave is your choice.

What changed, and when? Changelog

• 5 November 2026: every row re-checked against the statute or regulation. Illinois enacted text still not readable (restaurant treatment taken from a law-firm summary); NYC rule still proposed.
• 1 January 2027: Illinois's Junk Fee Ban Act takes effect.
• June 2026: Illinois's governor signs the Junk Fee Ban Act.
• 1 July 2026: Connecticut and Florida rules take effect.
• 1 January 2026: Colorado's 6-1-737 takes effect.
• 2 September 2025: Massachusetts 940 CMR 38.00 takes effect.
• 1 July 2025: Virginia's 59.1-608 takes effect.
• 12 May 2025: FTC fee rule takes effect, for tickets and lodging only.
• 1 January 2025: Minnesota's fee disclosure law takes effect.
• 1 July 2024: California's hidden fees law takes effect, with the restaurant carve-out signed two days earlier.

Can TablePort handle this for you?

TablePort keeps one menu and one set of prices behind every place guests see them, which makes a disclosure change a single edit.

1. Change prices once on the POS menu. QR order and pay and the kiosk show the same items and prices from that menu.
2. Import a new menu from a photo, PDF or pasted text, and review it before publishing.
3. At close, cash, voids, comps and tips reconcile on one screen, and the accounting exports give your accountant daily sales, tips and tax.

One honest limit: TablePort does not decide whether a fee is lawful in your state or write your disclosure, and this guide makes no claim about how a service charge prints on your receipt; check that in your own setup. See the POS page.