We Can Pay More For a Dinner Out
The Restaurant Association surveyed 2,000 restaurant operators last week and is urging Congress against increasing the federal minimum wage. Having asked only themselves, these bozos warned that restaurants would suffer from a fast-tracked wage boost amid the coronavirus pandemic. So now that’s a pandemic issue. They fought against it for the 20 years before we had that excuse because they simply do not want to pay wait and kitchen staff a living wage.
No one asked me. I was not informed
Nor did the survey ask anyone who would really matter, such as a customer. Fortunately, this shortcoming will not remain unresolved, because I am a customer. Not only am I a customer, but I have an opinion—which will come as no surprise to those who know me well—because I always have an opinion. Dinner for two in this day and age, other than the fast-food joints, will run you about a hundred bucks. Let’s say you tip 15% to bring it to $115. (side comment) Waitresses are the best tippers when eating out. Winder why that is?
Average payroll at restaurants is about 30% of gross income
So wait staff and kitchen, including chefs, prep cooks and busboys are $30 of my bill and we’re going to double their wage. So, now I’m looking at another thirty-bucks, right? Without even snatching the tablecloth from under the dinnerware, I’ve magically created a $130 dinner for two. But I’m no longer required to tip. So my out-of-pocket is $115 and I’m no-way gonna stop taking my sweetheart to dinner for fifteen bucks. Chances are I’m going to round up the bill five or ten bucks anyway, but I don’t have to feel like a cheapskate on the way out if I choose not to.
Further in the survey the restaurant guys slip in a lie
“Eliminating the tip credit will hurt millions of servers who rely on the current system where they earn between $19-$25 an hour with tips,” Kennedy wrote to Congress.
Which is not true.
Waiters and waitresses in Miami, Boston, and San Francisco reported the highest median tips per hour at around $13. The lowest median tips per hour for waiters and waitresses—around $7—were in Minneapolis, Detroit, and Seattle.
And one can only guess what they are in Alabama and Mississippi.
Reminds me of gas prices in 2000
The mantra back then was that if gas ever hit two dollars at the pump, the economy would shut down. All would be over. The country would screech to a stop. Well, they hit two bucks in 2004 and shot to $3.70 in 2012 and—guess what?—the economy kept on chugging, even throughout the 2008 recession. We paid it. We maybe didn't like it and complained a bit, but we paid it.
The fifteen dollar wage will raise grocery prices as well
Gonna be an extra ten cents for a bunch of radishes and half a buck for a head or lettuce, but the sweat left in the picking fields will be rewarded by a living wage. What was it I said in an article just a few days back? The fifteen dollar hourly wage will raise 40 million workers out of poverty. This country is always strong enough to help boost forty million Americans into the middle class. Two thousand restaurant owners dare not step in the way.
Photo Credit: wsj.com