On Tuesday, May 6, small business owners and business allies from across New York traveled to Albany to advocate for legislation, A.4017 (McDonald) / S.5587 (Skoufis), which would exclude swipe fees on tax and gratuities. This legislation would put an end to this adverse practice by credit card companies and debit card bank networks, providing significant savings to consumers, employees, and merchants.

Small businesses and consumers spend nearly $1 billion per year in swipe fees on sales tax and gratuities – money that is not kept by the small business owner; but is passed along to the state or employees.

Small businesses already operate on thin profit margins, which have been cut further in recent years as credit card networks’ swipe fees have increased. Credit card swipe fees have more than doubled since 2012 for small business owners. This problem has been exacerbated by pervasively high inflation in recent years, which acts as a multiplier as swipe fees are a percentage of each sale.

NFIB’s “swipe fee” lobby day included a press conference with the bill sponsors to raise awareness about the issue. For the remainder of the day, small business owners and business community partners met with lawmakers in their Capitol offices to speak on how these swipe fees disproportionately affect small businesses.