Well, here’s the angle from someone who has worked just about every restaurant angle except bar tending.
Even before Covid, the restaurant industry is very competitive and it’s extremely difficult to make a profit. It’s not like owners are sitting on a stack of money and paying the staff minimum wage. A restaurant is doing well if it has a profit margin of 3%. That means for every dollar that comes in, there’s 97 cents in expenses.
Here’s the problem with the $15 minimum wage (five years ago I was making more than that at a high-end restaurant, because I had twenty years experience).
$15 an hour would not be sustainable at your local fast food joint. If you have a staff of ten wanting $15 an hour, you’re going to have to let two go. So the remaking eight might get more money, but they’re doing more work.
The pandemic crippled a lot of restaurants, especially in New York. It is true many had to rely on unemployment. But it’s a negative incentive to get paid more to stay home than to work. But Unemployment expires after six months.
I’ll be the first to admit working in a restaurant is hard work. Operative word, WORK. The hours are long, it’s hot in the kitchen, it’s dirty, it’s backbreaking, but for many years, I loved what I did. When a customer says they liked my food that made it worth the effort. I made a good living at it because I stuck it out long enough and worked my a$$ off.
There may be restaurant owners that exploit their workers or underpay them. But at least three of my bosses treated me extremely well, and I stayed loyal for many years. Not everybody is cut out to work in a restaurant, but the industry served me well.
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