Restaurant compliance, with the statute named
Nobody in this category publishes the authority. The comparison sites paraphrase, the processors summarise their own programme, and the restaurant owner ends up with a confident sentence and no way to check it. Every rule on these pages names the statute, the regulation or the case, so you can read the primary text yourself.
Judd Alsup and the Equip Payment Solutions team, who install and support restaurant POS systems nationwide and sell Shift4 Dine and Clover.Updated August 9, 2026. Sources and dates cited on every figure.
The short answer
Restaurant payment and labor compliance, in one box:
- Surcharging prohibited in four jurisdictions, capped or conditioned in six more, bound by network rules in all fifty states.
- Debit may never be surcharged. That is a card network rule, not a federal statute, and it catches people out.
- Cash discounting lawful nationwide under 15 U.S.C. 1666f, including where surcharging is banned.
- Tip credit not permitted in seven states. The federal cash wage is $2.13 with a $5.12 credit.
- The 80/20 rule was vacated in October 2024. Guidance that still describes it is out of date.
The rest of this page is the case for each line, with sources.
Why these pages name their sources when nobody else does
We sell point of sale systems, which makes us an interested party, which is exactly why these pages are built the way they are. A claim about Connecticut's surcharge statute is either right or wrong, and if we name the statute you can check it in a minute. A claim with no citation asks you to trust a dealer about the law, which is not a reasonable thing to ask.
It also disciplines us. Three states carry surcharge bans that courts have held unconstitutional, and in two of those the injunction protects only the plaintiffs in that case rather than every restaurant in the state. The comfortable thing to write is that surcharging is legal there. The accurate thing is that the statute is still in the code, the courts have found it infirm, and you are not personally covered by somebody else's injunction. We write the second one.
Where a figure could not be verified from a primary source, it is not on the page. Where a rule is genuinely contested, the page says so and says why. Every table carries the date its sources were retrieved, because wage floors move annually and four states changed their surcharge law in the last three years.
The three references, and what each answers
The surcharging reference answers whether you may add a card fee at all, what your state permits, what the card networks require of you in every state, and why debit is different. Four jurisdictions prohibit surcharging outright, six more allow it with a cap or a prescribed disclosure, and the network rules bind you everywhere regardless.
The cash discounting and dual pricing reference answers the question that follows: if you cannot surcharge, or do not want to, what can you do instead, and where is the line. Cash discounting is lawful in all fifty states under a different statute entirely. Dual pricing is lawful where it is displayed correctly. The section that matters most is the arithmetic test that decides whether a programme sold to you as cash discounting is actually a surcharge.
The tip credit reference answers what you may pay tipped staff, state by state, from the Department of Labor's own table, plus the tip pooling rules and the current status of the 80/20 rule that a great deal of published guidance still describes incorrectly.
What all three have in common
The rule in one sentence, then the exception
Compliance questions have definite answers and unhelpful edges. Each rule is stated plainly first, then qualified, rather than hedged into uselessness from the start.
The authority, by name
Statute, regulation, case citation or the network's own published document. Named on the page, not linked vaguely to a homepage.
The retrieval date
Every table says when its sources were fetched. A compliance figure without a date is a liability.
What we could not verify, said out loud
Where a source could not be reached, or a question is genuinely contested, the page says so instead of filling the gap with something plausible.
The configuration consequence
Every rule here is a point of sale setting before it is a legal question. Each page ends with what the system actually has to do.
This is a reference, not legal advice
We are a point of sale dealer. We are not your lawyer, your accountant or your state labor office, and these pages are general information rather than advice about your restaurant. The reason we publish them is that the alternative on offer is a processor's sales sheet, and an owner deserves better than that when the question is what they may lawfully charge or lawfully pay.
Two habits will serve you better than any page. Check the primary source we name, because it takes a minute and it is the whole point of naming it. And before you change pricing or payroll, run it past someone whose professional obligation is to you rather than to a sale.
Have your own numbers checked
Send last month's statement. We read it with you, free, and tell you straight whether we are the ones to fix it.
Send your numbers
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It reaches the Equip team. A person calls you back, and if we do not have a crew near you, the team routes it to whoever serves you best. We never ask for card or bank details on this site.