Who Subsidizes Restaurant Workers' Pitiful Wages? You Do

[BluePhantom]

You are joking, right?? The average is 5-7% in successful restaurants.

A typical successful restaurant owner makes 20% net, so it is correct that customers subsidize the employees of the restaurant.

Actually it depends a bit on the type of restaurant. High volume restaurants will generate a lower net and make money by feeding the masses. Lower volume restaurants generate a higher net but don't do nearly the amount of business. 5% give or take a few points depending on the type of restaurant is about right.

But this is why wage hikes hit high volume restaurants harder. They have less room to work with so they have to run things FAR tighter. Small adjustments of 1% - 2% eat their margins alive and major wage hikes can wipe out their profitability completely.

I didn't bonus this last quarter because we spent five grand for a new sign the wind took out.

Oh you want to talk about signs? How about this one. There was a tree in front of the sign to one of our locations and it was obscuring the sign from traffic. I pointed this out to the owner. Now we can't just cut down the damned tree because we live in Portland and killing a tree for marketing is like treason so he spent $10,000 to move the fucking sign ten yards from one side of the tree to the other. Of course this obscured the sign from the view of traffic coming the other way.

I could have solved the problem for a couple hundred bucks in one afternoon with a chainsaw and a U-Haul. The public would have gotten over it.

Just as a follow up point, it makes it much harder to hit that 5% target when your owner is an idiot.

 

[SAYIT]

A typical successful restaurant owner makes 20% net, so it is correct that customers subsidize the employees of the restaurant.

Thanks to depotoo and BluePhantom
You're going to have to support that clam.
I will apply for that company TOMORROW, if true.
Their bonus structure must be fucking awesome

Fuck, dude......we spend more than 20% just on labor

No shit! Now toss in another 26%-30% for food and you are somewhere between 55%-60%. Then you have utilities, rent, insurance, maintenance, payroll taxes, marketing, etc, etc, etc.....pfft....20 fucking percent my ass.

What has been exhibited (again) in this exchange is the monumental ignorance of our 1%er and the typical socialist's willingness to LIE in order to justify his hatred.

 

[SAYIT]

Pretty soon more restaurant workers will be FORMER workers due to being replaced by robots.

Then we'll be paying 100% of their welfare benefits.

Hopenchange!

What will happen is exactly what we are doing at the restaurants I manage and what is happening all over the industry. Workers get 28 hours a week and no more. So all these people who had full time jobs now have part time jobs. So they get less money and have to buy their own insurance out of their smaller paycheck. Way to go Reid, Pelosi, and Obama.

An unintended consequence of misguided gov't regulation. Our leftists squeal that the newly minted part-timers must be aided from the gov't trough to make up for the lost wages. I recall a time in America when people didn't expect to support a family on a part-time job and would supplement their income with a second job. Now certain elected officials "buy" the votes of those reduced to part-time by business's response to gov't fiat.
Those officials make their living off other people's misfortune.

INEPTOCRACY - (noun) a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or even try are rewarded - in exchange for their votes - with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.

 

[boedicca]

A typical successful restaurant owner makes 20% net, so it is correct that customers subsidize the employees of the restaurant.

Thanks to depotoo and BluePhantom
You're going to have to support that clam.
I will apply for that company TOMORROW, if true.
Their bonus structure must be fucking awesome

Fuck, dude......we spend more than 20% just on labor

No shit! Now toss in another 26%-30% for food and you are somewhere between 55%-60%. Then you have utilities, rent, insurance, maintenance, payroll taxes, marketing, etc, etc, etc.....pfft....20 fucking percent my ass.

What has been exhibited (again) in this exchange is the monumental ignorance of our 1%er and the typical socialist's willingness to LIE in order to justify his hatred.

Morons like Percenter think business expenses are tax subsidies, and that businesses should be taxed on revenue (not profit).

 

[BluePhantom]

You are joking, right?? The average is 5-7% in successful restaurants.

A typical successful restaurant owner makes 20% net, so it is correct that customers subsidize the employees of the restaurant.

Actually it depends a bit on the type of restaurant. High volume restaurants will generate a lower net and make money by feeding the masses. Lower volume restaurants generate a higher net but don't do nearly the amount of business. 5% give or take a few points depending on the type of restaurant is about right.

But this is why wage hikes hit high volume restaurants harder. They have less room to work with so they have to run things FAR tighter. Small adjustments of 1% - 2% eat their margins alive and major wage hikes can wipe out their profitability completely.

I didn't bonus this last quarter because we spent five grand for a new sign the wind took out.

Oh you want to talk about signs? How about this one. There was a tree in front of the sign to one of our locations and it was obscuring the sign from traffic. I pointed this out to the owner. Now we can't just cut down the damned tree because we live in Portland and killing a tree for marketing is like treason so he spent $10,000 to move the fucking sign ten yards from one side of the tree to the other. Of course this obscured the sign from the view of traffic coming the other way.

I could have solved the problem for a couple hundred bucks in one afternoon with a chainsaw and a U-Haul. The public would have gotten over it.

We had a similar problem with our neighbors(McDonald's) at another place I worked.
We tried to offer to split the cost of just trimming it. They wouldn't budge.
I had a regular customer that worked for the power company. He butchered the shit out of that tree since it was "in danger of obstructing the power lines"


BTW, our sign is actually $7k. $5k is our deductible.
The other two grand, since we haven't paid it yet, will come off the bottom line this quarter. (our slowest)

Lovely. That sign story happened at my previous job, actually. I need to give you some background. They had one location when they hired me and they were in debt and about to close down. I have a reputation as a "saver" who turns struggling restaurants around so they hired me to fix the problem. I demanded total control and they gave it to me. Well in two years I had paid off all their debts and generated record profits for the company. Even better our comment cards, media reviews, and online reviews (Yelp, etc) went from 2 stars to 4 and we had expanded into catering and even got some of our products in grocery stores for retail sales.

But the owner was a flaming liberal (and I mean FLAMING) and although I am a moderate, my business strategy is very conservative. He hated everything I did regardless of the profit I was making and decided to open the second location over my objection because I felt we were not solvent enough to handle the initial losses a new location would incur. I said to wait two more years. Not only did he ignore me, he announced the he was going to show me that he could be just as successful with his business plan which was based upon liberal principles.

So he opened this restaurant, payed everyone a $15 minimum wage, gave insurance to all employees (even part time), all ingredients had to be organic and from local sources...you name it, he did it. When I ran projections I told him that not only would the restaurant fail in less than a year the debt it would incur would threaten the survival of our existing one. He laughed at me and said (direct quote) "you just watch".

Nine months. It lasted nine months and they incurred such debt that he had to let go of everyone who was making more than base minimum (including me). So all his management team...GONE!. All his experienced cooks making above minimum wage...GONE! All his experienced servers and bartenders...GONE! Basically everyone who could and was making him money is now gone. Occasionally I check his Yelp reviews (back to 2 stars) and the last P&L I saw, I projected 5 years of operating at the level I was generating to get the company solvent again.

Who got me? His main competitor. Apparently I was making such a dent in his operations that he made sure I was on his side from now on.

 

[BluePhantom]

Pretty soon more restaurant workers will be FORMER workers due to being replaced by robots.

Then we'll be paying 100% of their welfare benefits.

Hopenchange!

What will happen is exactly what we are doing at the restaurants I manage and what is happening all over the industry. Workers get 28 hours a week and no more. So all these people who had full time jobs now have part time jobs. So they get less money and have to buy their own insurance out of their smaller paycheck. Way to go Reid, Pelosi, and Obama.

An unintended consequence of misguided gov't regulation. Our leftists squeal that the newly minted part-timers must be aided from the gov't trough to make up for the lost wages. I recall a time in America when people didn't expect to support a family on a part-time job and would supplement their income with a second job. Now certain elected officials "buy" the votes of those reduced to part-time by business's response to gov't fiat.
Those officials make their living off other people's misfortune.

INEPTOCRACY - (noun) a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or even try are rewarded - in exchange for their votes - with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.

WAS it unintended? Or was it intended in order to create a dependent society? I am not a big conspiracy theorist so i am guessing it was unintended, but if that's the case then our elected officials are seriously stupid as posts. Like 2+2=3 stupid. As soon as I started looking at the new laws I saw immediately what was going to happen. I could figure that out but they couldn't? I am a simple restaurant manager/pastry chef/history teacher and I saw this coming a mile away and they were oblivious to it? Did the plan backfire......or did it work exactly as they intended? In other words they are either corrupt or incompetent. Take your pick.

And they wonder why Trump and Carson are surging.

 

[BluePhantom]

A typical successful restaurant owner makes 20% net, so it is correct that customers subsidize the employees of the restaurant.

Thanks to depotoo and BluePhantom
You're going to have to support that clam.
I will apply for that company TOMORROW, if true.
Their bonus structure must be fucking awesome

Fuck, dude......we spend more than 20% just on labor

No shit! Now toss in another 26%-30% for food and you are somewhere between 55%-60%. Then you have utilities, rent, insurance, maintenance, payroll taxes, marketing, etc, etc, etc.....pfft....20 fucking percent my ass.

What has been exhibited (again) in this exchange is the monumental ignorance of our 1%er and the typical socialist's willingness to LIE in order to justify his hatred.

Morons like Percenter think business expenses are tax subsidies, and that businesses should be taxed on revenue (not profit).

What morons like him do not understand is that businesses don't pay expenses, customers do. Want a $15 an hour minimum wage? Fine, no problem....hell make it $100 an hour. Just understand that your meat lovers pizza from Pizza Hut will now cost $125. Anyone who says otherwise is either in denial, a propagandist, or has now idea how businesses run. I have never seen a segment of society so hell bent on self-imposed inflation in my life.

 

[boedicca]

Pretty soon more restaurant workers will be FORMER workers due to being replaced by robots.

Then we'll be paying 100% of their welfare benefits.

Hopenchange!

What will happen is exactly what we are doing at the restaurants I manage and what is happening all over the industry. Workers get 28 hours a week and no more. So all these people who had full time jobs now have part time jobs. So they get less money and have to buy their own insurance out of their smaller paycheck. Way to go Reid, Pelosi, and Obama.

An unintended consequence of misguided gov't regulation. Our leftists squeal that the newly minted part-timers must be aided from the gov't trough to make up for the lost wages. I recall a time in America when people didn't expect to support a family on a part-time job and would supplement their income with a second job. Now certain elected officials "buy" the votes of those reduced to part-time by business's response to gov't fiat.
Those officials make their living off other people's misfortune.

INEPTOCRACY - (noun) a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or even try are rewarded - in exchange for their votes - with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.

WAS it unintended? Or was it intended in order to create a dependent society? I am not a big conspiracy theorist so i am guessing it was unintended, but if that's the case then our elected officials are seriously stupid as posts. Like 2+2=3 stupid. As soon as I started looking at the new laws I saw immediately what was going to happen. I could figure that out but they couldn't? I am a simple restaurant manager/pastry chef/history teacher and I saw this coming a mile away and they were oblivious to it? Did the plan backfire......or did it work exactly as they intended? In other words they are either corrupt or incompetent. Take your pick.

And they wonder why Trump and Carson are surging.

Some of the pols were certainly stupid. But the drivers of this thing had the "expand Big Government and create more dependent voters" agenda.

Transformation! Hopenchange!

 

[boedicca]

BistroBot is coming! You libs will love it! It doesn't pay minimum wage - it doesn't pay a wage at all!

Bistrobot

 

[SAYIT]

BistroBot is coming! You libs will love it! It doesn't pay minimum wage - it doesn't pay a wage at all!

Bistrobot

Dems are preparing a special income tax on robot workers as we speak.

 

[boedicca]

BistroBot is coming! You libs will love it! It doesn't pay minimum wage - it doesn't pay a wage at all!

Bistrobot

Dems are preparing a special income tax on robot workers as we speak.

Oh, fo shizzle. Just like how in CA they are feverishly trying to figure out how to tax non-gas using cars that they've subsidized with taxpayer money.

 

[OnePercenter]

A typical successful restaurant owner makes 20% net, so it is correct that customers subsidize the employees of the restaurant.

20% my ass. I have been managing restaurants my entire adult life. If you pull 5% you are doing well. Most do 3%-5%. Pfft....20%....anyone who believes that has never seen a restaurant's P&L

I wrote 'successful restaurant.'

If you've been managing restaurants your entire adult life, why don't you tell the truth? The restaurant made 20% net, and the owner took a 16% cut, leaving 4%, so you can cry poor. I've financed restaurants. I know the truth.

 

[OnePercenter]

I didn't bonus this last quarter because we spent five grand for a new sign the wind took out.

So you paid the insurance deductible and 'didn't bonus?'

 

[Rotagilla]

How?

How do Progressives figure out how to reproduce? Any species so consistently wrong and stupid must eventually go extinct

7 posts in and already trolling your own thread...

 

[OnePercenter]

No shit! Now toss in another 26%-30% for food and you are somewhere between 55%-60%. Then you have utilities, rent, insurance, maintenance, payroll taxes, marketing, etc, etc, etc.....pfft....20 fucking percent my ass.

That's 26%-30% of what for food?

Let's do it this way.......What is the typical mark-up on a menu item?

 

[OnePercenter]

Pretty soon more restaurant workers will be FORMER workers due to being replaced by robots.

Then we'll be paying 100% of their welfare benefits.

Hopenchange!

Sure, just like the self-driving car. The Google car has been hacked.

The hamburger flipping robot, who's manufacturer states won't flip hamburgers.

 

[OnePercenter]

Oh you want to talk about signs? How about this one. There was a tree in front of the sign to one of our locations and it was obscuring the sign from traffic. I pointed this out to the owner. Now we can't just cut down the damned tree because we live in Portland and killing a tree for marketing is like treason so he spent $10,000 to move the fucking sign ten yards from one side of the tree to the other. Of course this obscured the sign from the view of traffic coming the other way.

I could have solved the problem for a couple hundred bucks in one afternoon with a chainsaw and a U-Haul. The public would have gotten over it.

Or the sign could have been placed in a more suitable place in the beginning. It's called the six p's.

 

[OnePercenter]

What will happen is exactly what we are doing at the restaurants I manage and what is happening all over the industry. Workers get 28 hours a week and no more. So all these people who had full time jobs now have part time jobs. So they get less money and have to buy their own insurance out of their smaller paycheck. Way to go Reid, Pelosi, and Obama.

Screwing the people that make you all of your money? Typical asshole.

 

[hortysir]

I didn't bonus this last quarter because we spent five grand for a new sign the wind took out.

So you paid the insurance deductible and 'didn't bonus?'

That's how tight our margins are, Far and away from your 20% profit figure

 

[hortysir]

No shit! Now toss in another 26%-30% for food and you are somewhere between 55%-60%. Then you have utilities, rent, insurance, maintenance, payroll taxes, marketing, etc, etc, etc.....pfft....20 fucking percent my ass.

That's 26%-30% of what for food?

Let's do it this way.......What is the typical mark-up on a menu item?

25-30% of our total operating costs.

You sure ask alot of questions for someone that was so sure of himself about profits.

You'd never want to go out to eat again if you knew the mark up is about triple our cost.
If something costs me a quarter, I'm charging you a dollar for it (at least)