To the editor:
The proposed Question 5 on the Massachusetts state ballot for November 5 is a solution looking for a problem. The truth is that under the existing Massachusetts law, all $6.75-an-hour tipped employees in the restaurant industry in Massachusetts are already guaranteed the $15.00-an-hour state minimum wage. Put another way, if a sub-minimum-wage employee fails to make $8.25 an hour in tips, the employer must make up the difference, thereby ensuring the minimum wage of $15.00 an hour.
In my 47 years of owning and managing two restaurants in Great Barrington, 20 Railroad Street and the Barrington Brewery, I have never had to supplement a tipped employee’s wage. The fact is, they are consistently the highest hourly wage earners in my business, and they like it that way. They enjoy their jobs, work hard for their money, and earn every dollar of it.
Restaurant Resource Group claims that, on average, “restaurant profit margins are between 2% and 6%, with full-service restaurants at the lower end of the spectrum and limited-service (or quick service) restaurants at the higher end.”
Since reopening following the pandemic, those thin margins are squeezed daily by increases in food and beverage costs, insurance, utilities, and more. Those costs and the extremely tight labor market have made operating and maintaining a successful restaurant much more challenging.
Loyal servers and bartenders will see a dramatic decrease in their wages because with a “pooled-house” theory, they will be less involved with customer engagement and will make less money. Under the proposed law, “if an employer pays its workers an hourly wage that is at least the state minimum wage, the employer would be permitted to administer a ‘tip pool’ that combines all the tips given by customers to tipped workers and distributes them among all the workers, including non-tipped workers.” What will be their incentive to suggestively sell the oysters that just arrived that morning from Duxbury, or our famous Chocolate Stout Cake, or the specialty beer that just went on tap? What will the tipped employees’ strategy be to cope with a big decrease in wages? Full-service restaurants will be forced to go to a “fast-casual” style where the customer orders their own food at a counter (no table service), takes a buzzer, gets their own beverage, then goes to the counter when notified that their food is ready. Finally, before customers leave, they will be expected to bus their own table. Although there is a place for “fast casual” in the spectrum of dining options, full-service restaurants will become a dying breed.
I am urging a NO vote on Question 5 on November 5. Please help keep our hospitality industry stable by protecting the full-service model of restaurants with your NO vote on Question 5 on November 5.
Gary Happ
Great Barrington
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