A traveler at Hudson's Bryant Park Market in JFK Airport terminal 5 encountered a mandatory 3% employee retention fee when using self-checkout to buy a $21.99 book. The machine charged the surcharge on top of the book price, then sales tax applied to both the original purchase and the fee.
The Port Authority of New York New Jersey allows these surcharges. The regulation excludes employee fees from gross receipts under agreements where the Port Authority collects a share of concession revenue. A Port Authority spokesperson told merchants to add the fee, and the structure lets merchants keep more money by moving part of the price into fees rather than listing it in the base price.
This practice extends beyond JFK. Newark Airport implemented the same 3% employee benefit charge at self-checkouts last year. Philadelphia authorized a 3% add-on while keeping street price caps in place. Minneapolis allows a 4.5% hospitality charge.
Self-checkout machines at airports have also been demanding tips. At Austin Airport, a self-checkout terminal rejected $0.00 as a tip amount on a bottle of water. Staff confirmed the requirement, and the transaction only completed when the traveler entered a penny. Another Austin airport self-checkout earlier this year defaulted to an 18% tip while adding a separate card processing surcharge.