Minimum Wage Increase?
Today the House passed a federal minimum wage increase. It now goes to the Senate. The increase, if passed, will go into effect in three stages.
Now if this were Billy Dennis's blog with as many hits as he gets a day, I'm sure I'd get far more hate mail over this. I really don't have anything against the PRINCIPLE of minimum wage going up. What I am against is the issues, problems and costs with which it challenges the small business owner.
Let me set a scenario. Sally has been a stellar employee for Bob's restaurant for 8 years. She can do everything, wait tables, cook, hostess, wash dishes, prep and you can trust her to make a bank run for you. She is eager, ambitious and 99% complete isn't done in her eyes. She treats your business as if it were her own. Any company would love to have an employee like Sally. You pay her $12 an hour and pay a substantial part of her insurance to keep her around. You feel she is a true asset and fairly well compensated for what she does. And then there is Joey the wannabe gangsta high school dishwasher\busperson. He does a fair job, but you frequently have to remind him to take off the dirty apron and take out the nose ring before going out into the dining room. Last week he had on a Scorpion's "Virgin Killers" T-shirt and you had to find him something to cover that up before going out into the dining room. He may or may not feel like picking the fork out of the garbage can that he just dropped in there. However, he is like clockwork..he is always there...not something that can be said about most dishwashers you've previously had. Most seem to like him and he is a friendly sort of kid, but Sally thinks he's a slacker. He has been with you for 6 months and due to his stellar attendance, has been nagging you for a raise over the min. wage he is being paid. You sat him down and set some goals: No Virgin Killer (or the likes) T-shirts, the walkin needs to be mopped every night AFTER the waitstation is put away, just remove the nose ring before starting work and you won't "forget" during your shift, the radio can be on, but not so loud that you can hear it over the dishmachine so the customers out in the dining room get a full dose of Mudvayne and stop clocking in early and "hanging out" trying to "impress" with the younger waitresses. Do this for two months and there is .50 an hour. OK, 50 cents isn't a lot but Sally didn't start out at $12\hr., either. Now I'm going to have pay him $7.25 hour. He's happy. $7.25 an hour and he doesn't have to conform to get 50 cents. Of course, long term employees who are making little more than $7.25 now want a raise because they feel their worth is greater if I'm paying Joey $7.25. Unfortunately for you, Sally is one of these and feels that if you can "afford" to give average employee Joey a +\- $2 raise, she wants one too for not doing anything more than she already does...just like Joey. Kinda sucks, huh? And where are you going to get the extra money for this. Guess jack the price of meatloaf and iced tea, huh? Great...just what your customers will want.
Gotta love small business. Not only does it increase hourly wage, but it increases the amount that the business has to contribute to Social Security, Medicare, on state and federal levels. A $2 raise is almost a $4 raise when you figure ALL the payroll numbers.
I worked for min. wage a lot of years. Heck, I remember $3.15 an hour. But I was never happy with it. Wanted more. Now I'm going to sound really bad. Why are people happy with min. wage or slightly more? If they constantly live on that, don't they think that trying to better themselves, their performance at work, etc. might pay dividends to secure a better paying job or receive merit raises? But they drone on with mediocre work ethics and have little or no ambition to go back to school, etc. to obtain better money. I'll be willing to bet than when $7.25 rolls around the only thing that will improve for some of these people are a better cell phone, a better brand of beer, some new "fashionable" clothes, dying their hair purple, a new tattoo, an Ipod and all sort of other useless stuff instead of fixing their car, taking a college class, paying off a 28% credit card or putting a few bucks back in savings.
OK, yell at me.
posted by Chef Kevin @ 4:52 PM
9 Comments:
Get ready. I'm going to yell at you.
I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU.
No yellin' comin from this direction.
that sounds like a typical response from one in an industry that likes to hire and exploit illegal immigrants because not only are they great workers but you can pay them cheaply too thereby increasing your productivity and bottom line. Huh? Restaurants will pass on the wage expense to the consumer as will other businesses. CPI will reflect that down the road. So you have little respect for your diswashers? No need to portray and debase them as tattooed, purple-haired, cell-phoning, beer-chugging 5th Avenue ghetto monkey fashionistas as your commentary would suggest. And why would any reasonable, productive and fairly compensated employee think that they deserve a raise in pay because the dishwasher was mandated one by congress? I read a lot of cynicism in your post arising from your experiences in foodservice. "instead of fixing their car, taking a college class, paying off a 28% credit card or putting a few bucks back in savings."--well that's why we is dishwashers hot dog. We all aren't exemplar foodservice employees like you tucking away 10% every paycheck and able to get the $100 tune-up on the car because the employer figured out a way to keep me from getting any overtime pay for my $6.50/hr, 43 hour work week by taking out 1/2 hour a day pay for breaks I never get and when you complain you get the BS lies but you don't want to lose your job so you keep going on. And I bet you know what I'm talking about. This business takes advantage of its workers especially. But poor little restaurant business gots to pay me now 7.50/hr. I'm sure some will figure a way to get some of it back from us dumbass dishwashers. Rock on dog.
You're right, Cellphone. I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth and started out right at the top owning and operating a restaurant exploiting high school kids and illegal immigrants. And my college degrees were just handed to me, too. My bad.
Think again. Two of my first jobs were washing dishes 3rd shift at a 24 hr. restaurant and at nursing home, while I went to school to get my degree. And had my own apartment. I can't count how many times I've bummed rides, took the bus, called a cab, etc. to get to work when my car didn't work. It is called drive and responsibility.
And "dumbass" dishwashers (YOUR words, not mine) are the soul of a food service establishment. Can't operate without clean dishes, glasses, silverware, etc. and I've paid people far more than min. to wash dishes because they've done an awesome job at it and took pride in it. No, I don't want a pat on the back...they deserve it. And eventually showed them how to do stuff on the line and promoted them to line cook. And they made more money. But if you barely get to work on time, barely do the job at hand, barely give a crap why should I pay you more than barely?
Oh, clock in and out for your breaks. If you don't take them, there is no record of taking them and they are deducted from your pay, look up the Department of Labor in the phone book. Most jobs are at will employment. Feel you are treated bad, look elsewhere.
And if you don't think other people don't want a raise because the min went up, like the situation I wrote, you are sorely mistaken...
I agree with the above scenario. It makes about as much sense as the Ameren-cilco rate hike. Its what an earthquake is to a Tsunami.
Ok.. here is my take. If you are a restaurant that can and is willing to pony up for .50 cent raises and is willing to pay out $12 an hour with benefits then kudos to you.
My experience working and managing in the corporate/franchise restaurant world was very different. The typical employee received a nickel raise every 6 months if you were a good employee. Average to poor often saw nothing. A truelly exceptional employee might score a 15 cent raise. By the time someone was a dollar over minimum, their position would be in danger and or their hours cut back. There was targetted turnover unless of course that employee was really busting some ass. Instead you would probably lose a body somewhere else, in order to make labor target. The more you made, the less likely you would see a raise and the smaller the raise would be.
This isn't isolated but rather a pretty common practice in the corporate restaurant world. I used to manage in this environment. My hands were regularly tied. I could play along with the script or find another job. Eventually I did. I had some good people that frankly deserved a heck of a lot more than they were making or that I was authorized to pay them.
At one place I worked at in college, there were NO regular raises at all. I once asked and got a quarter. Yay... I was making a quarter over minimum and getting shift manager responsibilities dumped on me. The only saving grace in that position were the tips... from deliveries which I often did not get to go on.
Yeah the market plays a role but in my experience there was no shortage of labor so the corporations would easily stiff good hard working people.
Those people deserve better.
How are you to clock out for a break when you are the only dishwasher? The owner said to take a break at the end of the shift like I want to stay another 1/2 hour after work and the closer doesnt want to wait around either. The boss said for US to work it out. But its not my responsibily. Its his. OH well.
"Oh, clock in and out for your breaks. If you don't take them, there is no record of taking them and they are deducted from your pay, look up the Department of Labor in the phone book. Most jobs are at will employment. Feel you are treated bad, look elsewhere."
If there is no record of a break how can they take the break off your check? I contacted the DOL and got the forms months ago...called an attorney too who told me the DOL leans toward the employer in disputes. But I tracked my hours which is good. But I was told too that I would probably be blackballed in the city if I went to DOL and disputed.
I never said anything aobut your silver spoon, hardworking, cab driven degrees that made you a good and perfect employer. I was complaining about how you seemed to wide brush dishwashers and I was complaining about the problems with some employers in this industry. I don't throw forks in the waste can but I understand why some dishwashers do it. Hell I've even found them in the waste from the lunch washer and reported it.
Mahkno has it right over at Bill's:
"...something ONE can live off of..."
ONE, not a family of 8.
My understanding is,
A business cannot lawfully deny you your 30 minute unpaid break, nor can you refuse it. Tacking it on the end of your shift doesn't count. The company I had worked for got into a lot of shit over that (not me nor my restaurant at the time. Lots of somewhere elses)
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