As restaurant professionals around America clamour for an increase to the minimum wage, some restaurateurs are already adjusting their salary structure to take into account for the soon to come into law $15 standard.
One such restaurant operator is Oregon based Kurt Huffman. Portland based news outlet Katu reports that Huffman's soon to open beer hall Loyal Legion is doing away with tips in order to fix what he calls "a broken model."
Huffman wants to close the gap between the tip earning front of the house staff and those who work in the kitchen. He says, "To me it just seems a little bit crazy to have one type of employee make 30 dollars an hour and another making 12 to 14."
In another article published in the Portland Business Journal Huffman had this to say about the state's current tipping structure: "The current tipping system in Oregon and other states where the tip credit is illegal is just not fair, the way it is now makes for a very absurd inequity between the tip-earning staff and the non-tip-earning staff."
At present, servers at his other establishments, Ox and Lardo, earn around $30 an hour the bulk of which comes from tips.
Under Loyal Legion's new salary scale, servers will begin at $18 while dishwashers will be paid $15.
Huffman tells Katu, "I don't think I have a dishwasher in any of my restaurants that doesn't work two jobs, our average dishwasher works 60 to 80 hours a week because that's what you have to do to survive."
Huffman says the shift to a $15 minimum wage is "inevitable" and wants employees at his new venture to start out at that rate.
To compensate for the new wage structure, beer prices at Loyal Legion will begin at $6 instead of the usual $5.
