One restaurant's solution to wage gaps? An 18 percent 'man tax'

Handsome Her, a vegan cafe in Brunswick, Australia, introduced some new house rules to address gender wage gaps:

“House Rules, Rule #1: women have priority seating. Rule #2: men will be charged an 18% premium to reflect the gender pay gap (2016) which is donated to a women’s service. Rule #3 respect goes both ways,” a chalkboard at the cafe read, according to Broadsheet.

The owner of the restaurant, Alex O’Brien, told Broadsheet that the main goal of the new rules is to help women, spark conversation about gender pay gaps and the rules are only in place one week out of every month.

“I do want people to think about it, because we’ve had this (pay discrepancy) for decades and decades and we’re bringing it to the forefront of people’s minds. I like that it is making men stop and question their privilege a little bit,” O’Brien told Broadsheet.

After an image of the board was posted on Twitter, some accused the restaurant of “sexism” and “discrimination.”

However, O’Brien told Broadsheet that she’s been receiving some positive feedback from men and women. And if men don’t want to pay the extra 18 percent, they don’t have to.

"We are not imposing the surcharge, it's voluntary," O'Brien told Broadsheet. "Men are asked if they want to pay the charge before being charged."

On Sunday, a restaurant representative wrote a Facebook post detailing the positive responses the restaurant has received since starting the initiative.

This story was originally published August 6, 2017 at 4:09 PM with the headline "One restaurant's solution to wage gaps? An 18 percent 'man tax'."