Avram Hornik Stops Charging “Employee Benefit Fee” at All Establishments

Morgan’s Pier / Photograph courtesy FCM Hospitality

It’s been a big week for wellness fees in Philadelphia area restaurants.

On Tuesday, I told you that the chain restaurant Founding Farmers in King of Prussia was adding a five-percent “wellness fee” to all customer checks. The company explained that the wellness fee was to help cover costs related to employee health and wellness, but – and this is a big but – Founding Farmers said part of that wellness fee was also going to pay for things like napkins and silverware.

This got a lot of people talking about wellness fees, and I soon learned that the many establishments operated by Avram Hornik’s FCM Hospitality (places like Lola’s in Ardmore, Morgan’s Pier on the waterfront, and the Dolphin in South Philly) had been charging what Hornik called an “employee benefit” fee (I called it a “wellness fee” in my article) since March. In my report on Hornik’s fee on Thursday, an FCM spokesperson explained that the fee was to help FCM “provide a quality of life for the employees without having to drastically raise prices for the guests.”

My report also included observations from readers, who weren’t very thrilled about this whole notion of a “wellness fee” (or employee benefit fee) being tacked onto a check. And one local restaurateur wondered about transparency issues and worried that in the wrong hands, such a policy could hypothetically lead to restaurateurs stealing money from their employees.

On Thursday, a source who works for Hornik claimed that my report about the FCM fee led to a lot of questions and concerns among employees about exactly how the employee benefit fee program was being handled. And less than 12 hours later, Hornik emailed me to say he was doing away with the fee. He also objected to my calling his fee a wellness fee.

“For almost 30 years, I have been dedicated to making places where people can socialize together,” he wrote to me. “The impression that guest charges are hidden or unwanted interfered with that goal.”

Hornik explained that he thought that setting up a dedicated fund for employee benefits “beyond their wages” and “separate from the books and records of the company” would be of great benefit to them.

He gave some examples of how he claims the fund was used this year. “In 2023, we have used the fund to provide free SEPTA passes to every employee, guaranteeing that all tipped employees take home a minimum of $15 an hour, paid sick leave and vacation time, and provide bonuses.”

Hornik said that while he’s no longer adding a three-percent fee to each check, he will “look for a different way” to fund programs intended to help his employees.