Landlords are definitely an issue that needs to be handled as well but that doesn’t absolve the employer of paying their people a living wage. Tipping culture in general needs to die off.
If that’s not possible but they believe in their business, they could consider a different business model, maybe become an employee co-op so the employees have a stake and could see the fruits of their own labor one day.
Are you aware of any restaurants that pay an actual living wage? For Toronto (and the GTA), that’s $27.20 per hour, or nearly $10 above minimum wage. For restaurants that already operate on razor thin margins, that’s impossible.
I don’t go around inquiring what everyone pays but I try to frequent local, reputable business so I’m going to say, “yes, as much I can get in the capitalist dystopia we operate in.” There are several locally that actually try really hard to compensate their staff, including a couple co-ops, they’re pretty vocal about their tipping policies and the benefits they give their workers, they aren’t hard to find if you look around. They are slightly more expensive but the quality is usually there.
Kind of unrelated but I’ve noticed here locally (I can’t really comment on any other regions as I’m not that familiar with them) there seem to be a handful of successful restaurateurs that own several restaurants that underwrite or try out new concepts. If it’s successful it ends up staying around, if it’s not successful they usually know within the first year. I’m not sure if that’s how it is everywhere or if we just have a cabal of young chefs in my city but it’s something I’ve noticed. There are several brick and mortar stores that started out as food trucks and grew into more so it’s not like you have to open a big storefront initially either. Start your concept and bring in investors if you need to but if you can’t pay employees it’s not a viable business model.
FWIW servers can do really well in nicer places, If you want to see what a restaurant really pays look at how the kitchen staff is compensated.
Yes, I’m aware that high end restaurants can afford to pay their staff more and actually do so rather often. But those restaurants are unaffordable for most people to eat at outside of special occasions.
If restaurants were forced to pay a living wage then only the high end restaurants would survive, then everyone would be complaining that restaurants are only open for rich people.
Restaurants are basically always operating on a razor thin margin.
I see them open and close every year in my city. Restaurants coming and going like a revolving door. The commercial landlords stay the same though.
Restaurants are notoriously difficult to run profitably (non-paywalled: https://archive.is/cQ2pB). I’m a patron of a lot of local restaurants and they definitely open and close a lot more than pretty much any other business I can think of (except maybe vape shops, remember those?).
Landlords are definitely an issue that needs to be handled as well but that doesn’t absolve the employer of paying their people a living wage. Tipping culture in general needs to die off.
If that’s not possible but they believe in their business, they could consider a different business model, maybe become an employee co-op so the employees have a stake and could see the fruits of their own labor one day.
Are you aware of any restaurants that pay an actual living wage? For Toronto (and the GTA), that’s $27.20 per hour, or nearly $10 above minimum wage. For restaurants that already operate on razor thin margins, that’s impossible.
I don’t go around inquiring what everyone pays but I try to frequent local, reputable business so I’m going to say, “yes, as much I can get in the capitalist dystopia we operate in.” There are several locally that actually try really hard to compensate their staff, including a couple co-ops, they’re pretty vocal about their tipping policies and the benefits they give their workers, they aren’t hard to find if you look around. They are slightly more expensive but the quality is usually there.
Kind of unrelated but I’ve noticed here locally (I can’t really comment on any other regions as I’m not that familiar with them) there seem to be a handful of successful restaurateurs that own several restaurants that underwrite or try out new concepts. If it’s successful it ends up staying around, if it’s not successful they usually know within the first year. I’m not sure if that’s how it is everywhere or if we just have a cabal of young chefs in my city but it’s something I’ve noticed. There are several brick and mortar stores that started out as food trucks and grew into more so it’s not like you have to open a big storefront initially either. Start your concept and bring in investors if you need to but if you can’t pay employees it’s not a viable business model.
FWIW servers can do really well in nicer places, If you want to see what a restaurant really pays look at how the kitchen staff is compensated.
Yes, I’m aware that high end restaurants can afford to pay their staff more and actually do so rather often. But those restaurants are unaffordable for most people to eat at outside of special occasions.
If restaurants were forced to pay a living wage then only the high end restaurants would survive, then everyone would be complaining that restaurants are only open for rich people.