On Thursday's NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie noted a restaurant in Minnesota that found "a unique way to offset the added expense" of the state hiking its minimum wage: "The Oasis Café is now including a 'minimum wage fee' on bills. You see it right there on the bill. Totals 35 cents....the cafe's owners say this wage hike is going to cost them $10,000 a year, this is their way of protesting it..." [Listen to the audio]



Guthrie touted: "Now complaints are piling up on the cafe's Facebook page. One man says, 'Look, if you can't afford to pay your employees, then you shouldn't be in business.'" Fill-in co-host Carson Daly chimed in: "I'd rather not know. Hike a cost here or there, get your 35 cents and don't tell me."

Weatherman Al Roker observed: "Because they've probably done it other ways without letting you know." News reader Natalie Morales added: "Right. Without clearly stating it on the bill." Guthrie concluded: "Yeah, all companies do it, right? But they don't necessarily say [they're doing it]."



So it's fine to raise costs for businesses, it's fine for businesses to pass those costs on to customers, but the hosts of Today would just prefer that no one know that a liberal government policy like raising the minimum wage was to blame.

Here is a full transcript of the August 7 exchange: