Restaurants have always been places of opportunity in Colorado. Nearly one in three adults got their first job in a restaurant. Four out of five restaurant owners started in entry-level roles. Our industry employs more minority managers and women owners than any other.

But today, restaurants are fighting harder than ever to stay afloat. Profit margins are razor-thin. Labor challenges persist. Food prices, rent, taxes, utilities and regulations keep climbing. And through it all, one growing burden continues to squeeze restaurants: credit card swipe fees.

As president and chief executive of the Colorado Restaurant Association, I hear daily from restaurant owners about how these fees eat into their bottom lines. It’s time for Congress to act.

Since the pandemic, swipe fees — paid by businesses every time a customer swipes, taps or inserts a card — have jumped more than 70%. In 2024 alone, fees collected by Visa and Mastercard rose another 10%, topping $11 billion, while local restaurants struggle just to keep their doors open.

Here’s the reality: U.S. swipe fees now range from 2% to 4% of every transaction, making them the highest in the industrialized world; for example, local businesses pay more than seven times higher swipe fee rates than in Europe. For many U.S. restaurants, swipe fees are now their second-biggest expense after payroll and food.

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Why can’t restaurants push back? Because Visa and Mastercard control more than 80% of the market. They set the terms. They stifle competition. They keep raising fees, all while earning profit margins north of 45%. Meanwhile, the average Colorado restaurant runs on a 3% to 5% profit margin — if they are lucky. Recently, we’re hearing restaurants are hoping to make 1% to 2% profit this year, and others are in the red, losing tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

When swipe fees go up, restaurants are forced to either raise menu prices (and risk losing customers) or absorb the costs (and risk going out of business). Neither option is sustainable.

Restaurants in Colorado employ more than 11% of the state’s workforce. If we want to protect those 303,000-plus jobs and this vital part of our economy, we need to fix the broken payments system putting so many independent operators at risk.

That’s where the Marshall-Durbin Amendment comes in. Introduced by Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) and Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), this amendment would inject long-overdue competition into the credit card processing market.

Under the amendment, merchants would finally have a choice. Instead of being forced to route every Visa and Mastercard transaction through those companies’ high-fee networks, businesses could choose from at least two different processing networks, including lower-cost alternatives already operating in the debit card space.

Competition works. It forces companies to lower fees and offer better service. It’s why restaurants work so hard to attract and satisfy their customers every day. Why shouldn’t Visa and Mastercard have to do the same?

Lower swipe fees would be a game-changer for Colorado’s restaurant community. Restaurants could keep prices affordable and invest more in their businesses and employees, from raising wages to offering better benefits and growing their teams.

For too long, Visa and Mastercard have had free rein to inflate fees at will, with no real accountability. The status quo is pushing too many small businesses to the brink and stretching consumers’ wallets thinner by the day. Congress must act.

Passing the Marshall-Durbin Amendment would level the playing field and deliver real relief to restaurants and the customers they serve. I urge Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet to support this commonsense, bipartisan reform and help see it through.

Colorado’s restaurants and the communities they serve can’t afford to wait.

Sonia Riggs is president and chief executive of the Colorado Restaurant Association.