Dayton: Restaurant minimum wage fees 'tacky'

Gov. Mark Dayton says he's disappointed that restaurants are adding fees to diners' bills to pay the state's new minimum wage.

Dayton spoke about the practice in an interview with MPR's Morning Edition.

"I think its tacky, myself. But its their restaurant, and they have a right to freedom of expressions, and so if they're going to make this their way of objecting to it, people can decide for themselves whether they want to continue to patronize a restaurant that is trying to, opposes paying people $8 an hour," he said.

The state's new minimum wage went into effect last Friday.

It sets an $8 minimum wage for businesses with more than $500,000 a year in sales.

The law also created a youth wage for workers under 18 and will index the minimum wage to inflation starting in 2018. Both are new elements of state wage law.

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to correct the amount of sales of businesses affected by the wage increase. The correct amount is $500,000.