Right, when you’re dependent on $2.13/hr slave wages and impossibly long hours for salaried managers it turns out you don’t really have a winning business idea. What you have is a huge money loser in any first world country.
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It does suck because even though I truly want food service folks to make a living wage, if a burger at my local diner starts to cost $22 I’m gonna be like “lol no” as will most other people.
By patronizing the places as they are now we’re being enablers, but if everyone fixes their shit, folks vote with their wallet and we’re guaranteed to shut down all but the biggest and blandest chains that can probably manage reasonable prices through sheer volume or whatever.
Yeah the minimum wage exemption for tipped workers has always been shitty. I was doing a little research this morning, and I’m happy to see that even tipped workers in NYC have a minimum wage of $15/hr.
I hope some of the business bros can speak with more authority on this, but isn’t a big chunk of the issue of cost passed off to the consumer related to rent and not labor? That virtually none of these small-business owners actually own the building they’re in, and that’s the hump in all of this that goes largely ignored? I read this somewhere but didn’t have any luck finding it again to repost here, so that’s why I’m asking.
I know I’m greatly simplifying this, but by way of an example, isn’t part of the reason McDonald’s can keep their prices so low is that they own the buildings they are in? Not that anyone is getting hugely rich working there, but the absence of the rent as anchor on costs is not having to ship 15k+/month for the building?
Don’t mean to make this into an abolish-all-landlords derail. But if this is essentially correct, as per usual, everyone is probably angry at the wrong people.
You’re not paying $22 for a burger it’s $22 for a burger and a young reasonably attractive person to pay attention to you and cater to your random whims for an hour or so. You’ve been getting away without paying for the second part up until now. The free market held the whip so you didn’t have to.
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If you own your place of business, your business better make at least as much as you could have made by renting it out at market rates. Otherwise, you would be better off shutting down your business and renting it to someone else. So it doesn’t seem like you should be willing to pay higher wages just because you own your building. Although in reality there are likely a host of complicating factors that I’m not considering here.
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That seems pretty common but of course they should expect to pay a premium for not owning the real estate. Cost for a new store build-out on a restaurant is crazy high with a 5-7 year (minimum) expected time to get above water. And that’s for a sit-down national restaurant chain that’s highly successful, not Uncle Ted’s BBQ Shack.
Min. wage + tips is generally pretty good money. Also no one declares their full tips but in some places that rarely pay cash that might not matter as much.
It’s the cooks, dishwashers and bus staff who really get hosed.
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Some places do pooled tips and use RHS to justify paying the back of house staff the tipped min wage.
Back in the Stone Age (mod 80s), I bussed and remember a waiter being completely offended if you were anywhere near him when he counted his tips at the end of the night. You just had to trust his reporting and sharing of the assigned 10% to his busser(s). Was so ducking obvious he was under reporting and under sharing. I lasted about 3 months. Total
Shit show.
This really sucks but it’s an awesome situation for the owner of the restaurant. Getting the cohorts of employees to focus on grievances with each other instead of with the owner is a huge win.
Can you make a submission to the HCA subreddit ?
I found dinners to be much cheaper in Germany/England (even accounting for exchange rates) with the no/minimal tipping culture versus in the US. But ultimately, the real measure should be what does a waiter make in these countries versus in the US with tips.
I think I would be happy to go to a system without tips and a decent salary for waitstaff paid for by whatever increases are required per plate. As things stand now, waiters are normally getting something between $20 to $60 (rare expensive meal) per hour of service time directly from my table.
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Now factor in the cost of healthcare for uninsured $2/hr workers in the US vs Europe
Right, it’s even more amazing that you can eat a nice dinner for cheaper over there considering they are presumably being paid a living wage and getting health benefits.
many restaurants and bars in Seattle pay $15 plus tips. i’ve known that some bartenders make above $60k, although it’s usually with sucky hours and potentially working at 2+ different bars. for comparison, at USPS i think salaries start below $40k.
Can we get some shitheads dying up in this motherfucker? Don’t want this to just become a second LC thread.
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The good news is that only his lungs are failing. His body, heart, and all else is healthy!
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Fight the hood fight!
Lol “accidental” spelling error.
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So many new posts I almost thought Alito or Thomas died.
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