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Restaurant workers quit at record rate

npr.org

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Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#111

Post by dragonwriter »

leereeves wrote: post #59
maerF0x0 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or automate 99% of the business and free these poor souls from a mundane existence. Also, I think we should support them w/ safety net (see basically andrew yang's platform). I don't see anyone screaming about ditch digging jobs or dishwashers saying we should "save those jobs!" . Backhoes and automatic dishwashers have freed people from meaningless work. We should do the same for everything we can. There's a stereot…

> Also, I think we should support them w/ safety net (see basically andrew yang's platform). Which raises the question of why anyone would work, if doing whatever you want and still living a comfortable life was an option. It sounds like a lovely future, but I don't the automation exists yet to replace all the jobs.

> Which raises the question of why anyone would work, if doing whatever you want and still living a comfortable life was an option.

People with literally billions of dollars of wealth still devote time and energy to earning more. I don't think its a stretch to think that people who merely have enough for tolerable food, clothing, shelter will continue to do so.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#112

Post by JoeAltmaier »

WhompingWindows wrote: post #93

I go to a breakfast shop a lot, they lost around 1/2 of their staff permanently due to COVID, It majorly jostled the restaurant sector around here. I asked the owner, "Well, why'd they leave?". He claims "They're getting more on unemployment than if they worked." Well, why is that the case? Don't you provide them with enough to live on? If they're getting $500 a week from unemployment, that would mean you're paying p…

Folks raise that spectre when a living wage is mentioned. "So many service jobs lost!" I shake my head at that - folks who imagine themselves Free Market advocates, and here they are agreeing with Karl Marx that a capitalist system can't survive without a slave-wage class to prop it up.

Paying everybody a living wage should be the minimum bar for any economy. If ours can't do it, we need a different one.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#113

Post by amcoastal »

k33n wrote: post #57
nostromo wrote: post #6

I’m sure it has nothing to do with the government paying people to sit at home - something NPR forgot to mention in their article.

It's hilarious that this perfectly rational and fact based remark is downvoted. This place has gone full blue anon.

Its hilarious that you don't read the article to realize the comment is wrong. Surprise, confirmation bias strikes again.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#114

Post by atty »

Paul_S wrote: post #29

Restaurant owners refuse to pay higher wages because that would remove a huge profit source for them - variable pricing. As long as part of the wage is in tips the owner effectively is capable of charging customers different prices. Rich people pay more but poor poeple also visit. If you raise the price to pay a good wage without tips and abolish tipping you lose the poor customers.

You seem to be under the impression that rich people tip more. From what I have seen, and from many friends in the service industry, this is simply false. You’re far more likely to get no tip from someone driving a Mercedes than someone driving a junker, at least around where I am.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#115

Post by moate »

Good.

Here's my story from the industry I was a part of for a better part of a decade: One time while I was a line cook, I was cleaning a meat slicer and sliced 3/4ths of the way through the tip of my thumb (just the meaty part at the end, not bone or anything). I realized I had 2 options: Leave work, go to the ER, miss my shift/pay, and incur a bunch of medical debt I could barely afford OR; leave work, go to the CVS around the corner, buy a bottle of superglue, and patch myself back up. My boss even told me if I just needed to run to CVS, I wouldn't need to clock out, what a great guy! This was at an upscale Italian place on the Asbury Park boardwalk that was doing millions of dollars in sales every year.

When I left the industry to go into tech, I never looked back. I will always have a love/hate relationship with the industry. I love the creativity, the people, the experience of dining. I hate everything about the exploitative labor practices. I wish everyone leaving the industry good luck on their new, hopefully better paths. I wish every manager crying poor and bemoaning that nobody wants their poverty wages in a physically crushing industry a very fuck you.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#116

Post by [deleted] »

luffapi wrote: post #75
njovin wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe if enough businesses did this it would drive a societal shift. I've had the pleasure of firing a small handful of customers from my very small SaaS business when they were outrightly rude or vulgar. I feel terrible whenever I see an employee at any business having to be sanguine with an abusive customer, it shouldn't be tolerated.

It shouldn’t be, but just be aware that you’re asking people to put themselves in harms way. I’d rather grin and bear a jerk customer than get shot by one waiting outside after my shift because I personally had to kick them out. I totally agree abusive customers are a huge problem though.

[deleted]

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#117

Post by handrous »

didgeoridoo wrote: post #54
boulos wrote: post #5

If you’re interested in the topic, I recommend the MIT living wage research [1]. They’ve got probably the most useful calculator, letting you compare multiple scenarios. [1] https://livingwage.mit.edu/

Hmm just ran this for my area (Essex County, MA) and it spat out that NO job pays enough on average to have 3 kids (required 130k, max job average 121k for “management”). This seems a bit pessimistic, as I know plenty of people with 3 kids and pretty typical jobs…

> This seems a bit pessimistic, as I know plenty of people with 3 kids and pretty typical jobs…

"Living wage" may include having enough margin to save such that one may retire at something resembling a typical retirement age. If so, it's very easy to under-cut it and still be apparently doing fine, until age 70 when you have to keep working, through illness and pain, as a Wal-Mart greeter.

This also means responsible savers have to compete with borrowing-against-their-future types with no retirement savings, for things like housing or (relatedly) various scarce benefits for their kids. IMO it's a pretty strong argument against "freer" personal retirement account systems being the main mechanism of retirement savings, and for mandatory, strong public pension schemes.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#118

Post by dragonwriter »

atty wrote: post #114
Paul_S wrote: post #29

Restaurant owners refuse to pay higher wages because that would remove a huge profit source for them - variable pricing. As long as part of the wage is in tips the owner effectively is capable of charging customers different prices. Rich people pay more but poor poeple also visit. If you raise the price to pay a good wage without tips and abolish tipping you lose the poor customers.

You seem to be under the impression that rich people tip more. From what I have seen, and from many friends in the service industry, this is simply false. You’re far more likely to get no tip from someone driving a Mercedes than someone driving a junker, at least around where I am.

Rich people don't get rich by giving away money for nothing, so expecting rich people to be more inclined to do so is...odd.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#119

Post by boulos »

legitster wrote: post #78

I wonder if tipping took a huge hit in 2020. The kinds of people still eating in person at restaurants were often not paragons of conscientiousness in the first place. And I could see a lot of people cutting back on tipping when just patroning a place could feel like an act of charity in itself.

Actually, IIUC people were more generous tippers “during” the pandemic [1]. Some of the reopening discussion included a note that average tipping went down.

[1] https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/Data-show-the-pand...

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#120

Post by clairity »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #49
boulos wrote: post #5

If you’re interested in the topic, I recommend the MIT living wage research [1]. They’ve got probably the most useful calculator, letting you compare multiple scenarios. [1] https://livingwage.mit.edu/

This is a great resource. I'd nitpick that the childcare expense is IMO a terrible evolution of society. People used to take care of eachother's kids while they were at work (eg, work less hours or compressed days and trade day care days with a friend. ). It's far better for children to have stable adult support (ie same small set of people stably over time) than a revolving door of new employees, whomever is working…

children used to just go to the workplace with adults and/or spending time nearby playing with other kids. it's the separation of children from adults that creates a problem, not the accounting of it (e.g., childcare cost figures), an extension of a victorian sterility to public life, trying to cast perfect images of idyllic lives for others to admire rather than living carefree.
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