The hospitality industry was one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, an eventuality made immeasurably worse by Joe Biden’s monetary incentive to American workers to stay home once jobs began opening up.
Here he is during his remarks yesterday on the bipartisan infrastructure deal telling struggling small businesses to “compete” with the government by paying people more to work:
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Apparently, the president isn’t aware that some restaurants have tried that out of desperation. Back in April, a branch of McDonald’s in Florida offered to pay prospective workers $50 just to show up for a job interview and still had trouble find applicants!
Now one work restaurant in Minnesota has hit upon an idea that should alleviate the stress of too few employees. The plan? Chase away customers by adding an “equity” surcharge to diners’ checks. (Actually, from the way the term is used, it sounds more like equality than equity, but if you going to virtue signal, you might as well use the most current leftist vernacular.)
The restaurant, Broders Pasta Bar, in Minneapolis, has published an online manifesto explaining why its patrons should be on board with its “noble” gesture:
Historically, restaurants have relied on customer tipping to supplement the wages of its customer-facing service staff. It is part of a traditional restaurant economic model and many states have allowed reduced minimum wages for service staff in the form of a tip credit. Studies have also shown that there is inequity and built-in bias in the way consumers give tips. In general, Black or Brown servers receive less [sic] tips than Caucasian servers. There is gender bias as well. In restaurants, immigrants and people of color work mostly in the kitchens and have no access to gratuities to supplement their hourly wage.
The restaurant provides no link to the “studies” it cites. (A Google search reveals that a labor advocacy group called One Fair Wage conducted a “study” that found that black workers reported that their tips had declined more precipitously than those of workers as a whole, which is a different metric altogether. In any case, the “findings,” grouped under the title “Ending a Legacy of Slavery,” are so freighted in white guilt that it’s hard to take any of it seriously.)
Another restaurant called Saartj, located in New Orleans, charges $12 to people of color and $30 to white for the same meal. White people can, however, also pay $12 if they choose.
