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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/
They're using state level minimum wages, but that's just as inaccurate as using the federal minimum wage.
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Were you only paid if you didn’t work? From what I understood the checks were given to everyone?
They're referring to unemployment benefits. I was surprised to find out that a friend's kid has been collecting them for a year - this person has a STEM degree and lost their job due to a fire at work, not COVID. Doesn't matter, the state gave blanket extension to unemployment benefits. In the past you could collect for only a few (maybe 6) months - not sure of that particular state's laws.
Wages/insurance/tips are an ongoing concern of food service work, but I want to set that aside and talk about the other half of the article. Customer entitlement is out of control and anybody who works with the general public will tell you it’s gotten even worse since the pandemic—and it wasn’t trending in the right direction before. Flight attendants, park rangers, government clerks, the anecdotes are everywhere, in…
> Customer entitlement is out of control It's not just customer entitlement. It's been a steadily rising thing throughout society for my whole life. People are less and less willing to accept responsibility for their choices, and more and more it's always someone else's fault. For example, a person who chose to go $300,000 into debt to go to Columbia film school, where the starting salary upon graduating is $30,000,…
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Restaurant work sucks, it's not tipping's fault. I don't work nearly as hard as a software developer compared to when I was a waiter or cook. Software development is lower stress most of the time too.
I knew someone who was mad at their partner because their partner was a software engineer and "didn't work as hard as they do" at a lower skill job, and yet made a lot more money. I'm not sure where this idea comes from that hard work is as valuable/more valuable than skilled work. But it seems to be a pervasive idea.
The restaurant industry has known the solution for a long time but everyone wants to pretend it would be too difficult. Stop the tipping guilt trip placed on the public, raise your prices 20%, and pay your employees a livable wage. The public will still show up to eat in your restaurant.
They are still worried about the long term health of the business because of enternal cost increases (food, supplies, etc.), and are honestly thinking of just shutting down their restaurant and retiring rather than raising prices. They honestly think that if they raise their prices to get the same profit (NOT increase, just to keep it the same!) they have been getting, no one will come anymore because the cost is too much.
They by comparision to a lot of other business are lucky! They don't have to worry about rent at all, and they only have themselves to pay. Both also have other external sources of income (their spouses works), and have absolutely zero debt.
I can't imagine how it is for business that have rent (and possibly rent backpay) and employees they need to pay. I went to Northern VA (Reston) before and after COVID....so see almost all of the local restaurants and a great local grocery store wiped out because the property management were so unforgiving for rent.
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Walmart and Amazon raising wages allows them to exercise their huge scale to further crush their competitors. With their huge efficiencies of scale and deep cash reserves, they are better able to offer higher wages than competitors. During the pandemic, both Walmart and Amazon have seen huge growth. They can continue this growth post-pandemic by squeezing their competitors on wages, and eventually emerging with less…
Being able to be more efficient and pass down savings to low prices and higher worker wages seem like a good thing.
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It comes from classism. Historically, the people doing "hard work" were peasants, serfs, and other lower-class people. The people doing "skilled work" were the educated sons of nobility, and later of wealthy merchants. An awful lot of the unhealthy and destructive dynamic in our modern work can be traced to feudalism.
it is not, but carry on. Skilled, in late antiquity/mediaval times, meant the engineer doing trebuchet, or building ships, or building high quality steel, etc.. et.c.. it was actually hard work. None of them were things that the ruling class/aristocracy did. They just paid for it (with the levies/taxes they took from their land). Eventually another higher skilled level arised, as thinkers/scientists became hired by t…
The restaurant industry has known the solution for a long time but everyone wants to pretend it would be too difficult. Stop the tipping guilt trip placed on the public, raise your prices 20%, and pay your employees a livable wage. The public will still show up to eat in your restaurant.
Seems like an oversimplification to me. If the owners could simply raise prices by 20% and suffer no economic consequences, I have little doubt they would. Thus, I can only surmise that it is not as simple as that.
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Restaurant work sucks, it's not tipping's fault. I don't work nearly as hard as a software developer compared to when I was a waiter or cook. Software development is lower stress most of the time too.
Some folks would say the same thing about software development sucking. I think it probably depends on which restaurant you work at and on your skill set and ability to thrive in that fast paced environment. The difference is that software is easier money if you have the knack for that type of work. But it’s like anything: you have folks who are passionate about cooking but not business savvy. They might be excellent…