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Complaints are beginning to come into the Better Business Bureau offices nationwide and to state agencies about a new fee that is creeping onto the receipt of restaurants and fast food joints. Titled “TEMPORARY INFLATION FEE” it is added to the bottom of the receipt where it is easily overlooked, especially when driving through a fast food window when you don’t see the receipt until after you receive the meal.

Some of the fees are more than what you are paying in state or local taxes, making the cost of your meal in taxes more than the cost of the food. On average, the BBB is reporting the fees are running between 5 and 8 percent but some restaurants are charging as much as 15% or more.

The restaurant industry is defending the new fee as necessary to cover the rising costs of food, supplies and wages and it says that such a fee is no different than what utilities have recently implemented to make up for their debts or what has always been there when purchasing phone cards or luxury items.