I don’t disagree. But for the sake of playing devils advocate a bit - restaurants already take YEARS to achieve profitability because costs are so high. If you suddenly triple all of your wait staff’s salaries, small, local restaurants making good faith efforts to operate ethically would probably be the ones to suffer.
And yet - I’ve heard that if McDonald’s were to pay employees $15/hr, because of economies of scale, it would raise the cost of a burger by mere pennies.
So if your local mom and pop’s can’t afford to operate now, and all you’re left with is Chili’s and Olive Garden and McDonald’s who priced them out of business with capital investment and economies of scale, mom and pop go away and all we’re left with is the corporate garbage. And when the competition is dead, prices will steady climb. Meanwhile, those m&p restaurants all have waiters now making $0/ hour.
I’m not an economist. Obviously. And maybe it wouldn’t be so dire. It just feels like “let the market sort itself out” would work great for the CEOs and not anybody else. I haven’t seen the market self correct for my benefit in years. But in our failing capitalist society, I think there are about a thousand ways the worker and the consumer end up fucked either way.
If you suddenly triple all of your wait staff’s salaries, small, local restaurants making good faith efforts to operate ethically would probably be the ones to suffer.
So how do restaurants outside the US that do not rely on the patrons paying their staff survive?
Alternative fix: make the minimum wage an actual minimum wage regardless of tips. Let the market sort itself out from there.
I don’t disagree. But for the sake of playing devils advocate a bit - restaurants already take YEARS to achieve profitability because costs are so high. If you suddenly triple all of your wait staff’s salaries, small, local restaurants making good faith efforts to operate ethically would probably be the ones to suffer.
And yet - I’ve heard that if McDonald’s were to pay employees $15/hr, because of economies of scale, it would raise the cost of a burger by mere pennies.
So if your local mom and pop’s can’t afford to operate now, and all you’re left with is Chili’s and Olive Garden and McDonald’s who priced them out of business with capital investment and economies of scale, mom and pop go away and all we’re left with is the corporate garbage. And when the competition is dead, prices will steady climb. Meanwhile, those m&p restaurants all have waiters now making $0/ hour.
I’m not an economist. Obviously. And maybe it wouldn’t be so dire. It just feels like “let the market sort itself out” would work great for the CEOs and not anybody else. I haven’t seen the market self correct for my benefit in years. But in our failing capitalist society, I think there are about a thousand ways the worker and the consumer end up fucked either way.
So how do restaurants outside the US that do not rely on the patrons paying their staff survive?