Reshaping Hospitality

I’ve been working tirelessly in the hospitality field for my entire working life. Starting from high school, through colllege (actually went to college for it), and beyond. I have seen every struggle from almost every platform out there. Platform in this since is more the secular environment where a restaurant stands opposed to a hotel/cafe/country club/ or bar. The difference in the environment is based solely on the clientele it tries to attract. Much like any other business, ever. However there is a consistent dilemma no matter which arena your establishment caters to. It’s the workers. It’s the people making your food or catering to your needs. Call them servers, waitresses, waiters, bus boys, whatever suits you. Those are the ones I’m talking about. Then we’ll get into the back of house, the cooks, dishwashers, chefs, bakers, or whatever you think of them as.

It doesn’t take long in this industry to see that it’s the ones not working that are making the most. It’s the people at the top of this pyramid that sell you a pipe dream, put a tiny salary to you, and expect you to do a thousand things. Now personally, I’ve never been a server but I’ve seen their paychecks. I know I know, “they make so much in tips” but like, is that really fair? Is that far off from sex work when you think of it? Are you saying the person making your latte before you walk into your $70k annual job deserves to beg for your spare change? Is this really the American dream?

I don’t think it is, but the mentality of making people work through the obstacles to “create a better life for themselves like I had to” is insane. The idea that we let this slide for so long is painful enough. We get it, back in the 80’s you waitresses through college and now you own the place. This isn’t the 80’s, everything is expensive, and those that are physically generating the money should be actually profiting off of it. If someone makes $1000 in sales in one night and everyone got tipped 20% that’s only $200. That’s insane because the $200 never came from your restaurant and you never came to work either so your hand wasn’t involved physically in generating that monetary gain. I’m aware some of you out there that own businesses are stopping here and saying things like “well there’s overhead costs”.

Cool, let’s talk about overhead costs. Your employees have them too. Let’s talk about how no matter what, as a responsible adult they have rent, car, car maintenance and the insurance stuff, utility bills, etc. Almost the same “overhead costs” that you have to run a business but you expect them to cover your costs. As employees, for them to worry about the overhead costs you have to maintain, you’d have to worry a little more about your employees financially.

When you really think about it, and I mean REALLY think about, you’re relying on a group of people that you’re only paying $2.13 an hour to take care of your business. You’re relying on actual adults to make sure customers are cared for, food going to the right table, people to be personable and pleasant to patrons, and be honest with money and alcohol. All of that, less than $5 an hour coming from your pocket. That’s insane. I personally don’t think I can trust someone that sees how much money they have personally generated for a business that’s not theirs to not take something. Entrusting people around hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment and a plethora of liquor and not paying a livable wage is disgusting.

Do keep in mind another small tidbit when it comes to the from staff as well, they are the face of your establishment. They greet people, deal with concerns from guests, they also handle money and get blamed for food they didn’t cook being bad, still, $2.13 an hour. Disgusting.

The kitchen, depending on where you are, only has it slightly better. The difference is usually just a wall or two. On average a business will pay a cook somewhere between $10-$14/hr. Think about every place you’ve worked in corporate America, or someplace else that paid you well. Now think of it this way, one mistake and you’re in the hospital. Mishandled food, unorganized chaos, and a thousand small things that can easily be overlooked and your anniversary dinner is going to lead you to being a semi-permanent fixture to the toilet. Or worse, depending. You’re trying to tell me that paying a cook barely $30k a year is better than the lawsuit that can caused you to shutter your doors? It’s generally a $75k lawsuit, you have to tell the public, and generally a place doesn’t make it much after that.

The American ideology has these positions burned into our brains as being High School jobs. Often you may joke and say things like “when are you going to get a real job”. Tell me how this isn’t a real job. Tell me how you can write a 7 paragraph review from an iPhone 12 about how much your service sucked at iHop and the bacon was cold but this not be a real job. That service good or bad prompted you to make a comment about an establishment. That server, depending on the owner, may not have a job after it. Stop telling your family their job isn’t as important as yours, especially when it is as heavy or more so than a desk job.

Stop telling people that “burger flipping” isn’t a career when you celebrate every milestone in an establishment. The ONLY difference between a “burger flipper” and a “chef” is the establishment in which they work. I know I’m going to catch a lot of grief for that but let me explain. If the experience is something nostalgic, throwbacky, diner-like- you’re a cook. Cool. Awesome. If your establishment has a well defined curated menu for an experience driven crowd, you probably have pre fixed menus, and lean towards innovative cuisine- you’re probably a chef lead establishment. Both are GREAT. Do it because you love it. Do it because there’s no better rush than knocking out a rail and hearing people exclaim how much better you made their day. Honestly, chef/cook, who fucking cares, make food that makes you happy to put out. Don’t let anyone tell you you couldn’t advance in life because you make food.

In both the front and back you have people that LOVE what they do. You have people that take on these underpaid tasks because they actually enjoy talking to people, cooking for people, and care for people. The least you can do as an employee is create an environment where they don’t need to beg for a raise, get a second job, or think of how to get out of what seems like a dead end career.

Profits are simply unpaid wages. This is the money your employees have gone above and beyond for. This is the money that is left over after every bill is paid, every work order filled, and every employee paid. This is money that you never had to have a hand in to make. Generally this is the idea of what the top of the pyramids looks like. From this angle instead of looking down on all of the employees that have been working their asses off to not make you upset, you lift them up. At this point you can sit down with an accountant and see what you can reasonably pay your employees at a rate that is livable.

“Maybe it’s not that easy” some random person is thinking in their head. Yes it is. Talk to your employees and see where the line is. On average in the US, $40-$50k is what people are trying to reach at the bare minimum. That’s making an average of $21/hour. Sure, that seems a lot. Think about what your employees do though, think about your upper management. Where can you trim some fat off the top and send it to the people actually putting in the physical demands of what the job entails.

I get that upper management is either not a thing everywhere or is essential to the establishment. I’m not an idiot. I just don’t think that John in accounting needs to make $70k a year to really only put out work every 3 months. I don’t think Susan in marketing who is email blasting last seasons menu while in her pjs, drinking a mimosas, and dancing to Justin Timerberlake needs to make $60k. There is fat to trim, you know it and so does the restaurant staff. More than anything, consistency is important to your business. Way more than the social media person, or the photographer, etc. Not that those people aren’t contributing, just that that isn’t what your customer sees.

If you have regular guests and the kitchen doesn’t shuffle a lot all the time a couple things happens. First, the food is consistent. Maybe here and there you might have to 86 something. The flavor is there, the guests love it, they tell people ans they always come back. Second, the longer cooks are somewhere where they feel appreciated, they start putting out their best work. The grow with you, not against you. Throw in a salary that allows them to have a decent work/life balance and you have a long term employee. Especially if they don’t have to stress about leaving your place to go to another restaurant.

Servers typically don’t see this as a career but if you paid them like it were, they would. They would stay around and create lasting relationships with guests. Making a more welcoming environment means that more people would flock to you. Guests tend to spend more time and money at places where you can tell the staff is happy.

I’m not saying don’t pay yourself, you earned it getting something off the ground. Good on your for that. It’s just time to rework how we actually treat the people that are serving us, cooking for us, and spending holidays with us. We need to pay people like this is the lucrative industry that it is and allow people to live without financial stress for a job that they do and we’ll. It’s not entry level when you have a passion and I k is you know the difference between a 18year old server serving for the first time and a 30 year old that knows how to cater to your needs.