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Restaurant workers quit at record rate

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Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#691

Post by AussieWog93 »

eggsmediumrare wrote: post #651
AussieWog93 wrote: post #627

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'd rather attack that problem than make Wendy's sandwich maker a viable career. Why shouldn't Sandwich Maker be a viable career? They definitely contribute more to society than HR professionals or agile coaches.

Serving greasy heart attack patties might not be the most optimal example for an otherwise valid point.

To be fair, both "sandwich" and "Wendy's" mean completely different things in Australian English!

Sandwiches typically contain fresh ingredients (we'd call a gresy heart attack patty between two buns a burger), and Wendy's is a completely different chain that sells dairy products and hot dogs.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#692

Post by pxeboot »

jackson1442 wrote: post #625
ahallock wrote: post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In high school, I worked at a fast food joint to make a little extra money. There were no expectations to pay rent or other essentials. But you'll say that it's not kids working these jobs, so we need to provide a livable wage. What about getting these people skills for better jobs? I'd rather attack that problem than make Wendy's sandwich maker a viable career.

What skills does a line cook at Wendy’s learn aside from “how a job works?” Also, who staffs Wendy’s from morning until schools let out during the day? I haven’t seen seasonal fast food restaurants anywhere near me.

There are definitely a lot of summer only burger joints, ice cream shops, etc., especially in places with cold winters.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#693

Post by fridif »

rendall wrote: post #667
flippertheD wrote: post #661

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, all businesses run operations dif and have dif margins, so let's not forget that. I run a recruiting company. From our data a few things have popped up. First, people want higher wages in the lower wage industries. They are asking for $15-20 per hour. Second, lot of these people don't want to go back to the same labor jobs they had - they want to do something different. the problem with this is that they want t…

It sounds like a seller's market.

A seller's market created by a law in which if the buyer pays too low of a price, very bad things happen to them.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#694

Post by ayngg »

browningstreet wrote: post #498

I think some businesses are going out of businesses because they stubbornly refuse to raise their wages. In the vacation community where I live, there are two grocery/delis about a mile apart from each other. One is at a marina, the other is at a beach. They have almost the same business offering. Traditionally, both are fully mobbed during the sunny seasons. Two weeks ago, I visited the one I usually go to -- at the…

Policy has crept business in this direction by stretching wages low while maintaining the benefits of revenue of a developed society, and while there are some successful restaurants, a large amount of them aren't exactly swimming in money because the benefits of this policy are captured by the large corporations. Nobody starts a restaurant to get rich. If there is a hard snap back like what covid did with state benefits, it isn't a stretch to say that many businesses would be scrambling to find a new equilibrium.

Restaurants in general are relatively premissionless in that anyone can start one, which is why so many fail. They can run the gamut from low margin to high margin, poorly managed to managed very well, so its no surprise that some will do better than others. In fact, I would think that the large corporate franchises will have the resources to adapt compared to the small business, family run restaurants because they have the logistical acumen to subsidize the costs.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#695

Post by chillwaves »

mirkules wrote: post #596
robotresearcher wrote: post #582

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Naive question: why not raise prices?

Because if everyone raises their prices, the wage increase then effectively makes no difference. If everyone raises wages, they have to raise prices. For the restaurant, this means they have to charge more for the same service, and they have to pay more for their supply chain (because they also increased their prices). For the worker, that means they will pay more for things and services they need/want, because every…

That would only be true if labor were 100% of the input costs.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#696

Post by [deleted] »

flippertheD wrote: post #661
browningstreet wrote: post #498

I think some businesses are going out of businesses because they stubbornly refuse to raise their wages. In the vacation community where I live, there are two grocery/delis about a mile apart from each other. One is at a marina, the other is at a beach. They have almost the same business offering. Traditionally, both are fully mobbed during the sunny seasons. Two weeks ago, I visited the one I usually go to -- at the…

Well, all businesses run operations dif and have dif margins, so let's not forget that. I run a recruiting company. From our data a few things have popped up. First, people want higher wages in the lower wage industries. They are asking for $15-20 per hour. Second, lot of these people don't want to go back to the same labor jobs they had - they want to do something different. the problem with this is that they want t…

[deleted]

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#697

Post by acituan »

Aloha wrote: post #500
browningstreet wrote: post #498

I think some businesses are going out of businesses because they stubbornly refuse to raise their wages. In the vacation community where I live, there are two grocery/delis about a mile apart from each other. One is at a marina, the other is at a beach. They have almost the same business offering. Traditionally, both are fully mobbed during the sunny seasons. Two weeks ago, I visited the one I usually go to -- at the…

It's not just wages - like alot of what we can do is making shitty jobs less miserable, ensuring everyone gets some amount of vacation and sick time, insuring everyone has cheap or free healthcare access, ensuring everyone has relatively fixed schedule - eliminate punitive workplace policies, on stuff like attendance and other shit that makes being there miserable. Like, you can do a hell of alot to reduce peoples da…

All of those reasons are valid, but not unique to hospitality industry.

I think we might be backgrounding one particular reason too much: customers are a headache. One of the subheadings of the article is "They're just yelling the entire time".

I find it interesting that this hasn't been discussed as much, maybe because we are culpable? Maybe at one point of time we were that high maintenance customer? Maybe there is a general culture problem we all have regarding how we treat strangers, especially those who are bound to serve us to an extent. And looking at that need for transformation might be hard on our ego than the transformation of structural non-industry-specific inequities.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#698

Post by 71a54xd »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #653
71a54xd wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One could argue the move to continue unemployment payments / covid payments is a strategy to "raise minimum wage" without actually having to pass any policy to do so. Politically it's brilliant, you gain the support of your voter base in 2yrs with the assumption that "cheap employers" will simply go out of business because nobody will work for them. And your more conservative base will champion you for "resisting to…

The problem with both unemployment payments and UBI is, that someone has to pay them, and (in case of the first) they stop at some time. If you get X money per month of unemployment and X+20% to work, then yeah, if it's not a fulfilling work (and let's be honest, what work at that price is fulfilling), you'll rather stay at home. Once the "free money" dries up, people will be forced to take the shitty jobs too, but d…

Yep, and in states with lots of illegal immigration the actual price of "labor" is heavily depressed since they're willing to work for basically anything.

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#699

Post by gwbas1c »

itsoktocry wrote: post #530
browningstreet wrote: post #498

I think some businesses are going out of businesses because they stubbornly refuse to raise their wages. In the vacation community where I live, there are two grocery/delis about a mile apart from each other. One is at a marina, the other is at a beach. They have almost the same business offering. Traditionally, both are fully mobbed during the sunny seasons. Two weeks ago, I visited the one I usually go to -- at the…

> I think some businesses are going out of businesses because they stubbornly refuse to raise their wages I'm skeptical that a business would choose to go out of business rather that give raises. Have you considered that margins are tighter than you think? I know small businesses like that.

> Have you considered that margins are tighter than you think

I suspect that some business owners will need to take a paycut in order to stay in business.

(I'm sure there are plenty of founders reading this article who sometimes pay their employees more than they pay themselves.)

Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate

#700

Post by 71a54xd »

avidiax wrote: post #652
71a54xd wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One could argue the move to continue unemployment payments / covid payments is a strategy to "raise minimum wage" without actually having to pass any policy to do so. Politically it's brilliant, you gain the support of your voter base in 2yrs with the assumption that "cheap employers" will simply go out of business because nobody will work for them. And your more conservative base will champion you for "resisting to…

That's an interesting take, but it seems like a post-hoc rationale/strategy to me. Conservatives will block any rise in the minimum wage, but couldn't completely block additional unemployment benefits. Progressives would back a rise in the minimum wage, but had to deliver on relief for the unemployed working class, so they did just that. The secondary effect of rising wages was probably only something that conservati…

Yep, but at the end of the day anyone who's trying to build wealth or have anything left for retirement gets fucked by inflation. People who are spendthrift and receiving UBI or unemployment payments (long term) were never trying to do that anyways and their payments in theory would increase with inflation.

I'm a supporter of the idea of UBI but I just can't see the incentives panning out realistically.

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