Red Alert Politics: The New York food industry is slowing as the minimum wage rises, and one CEO explains how businesses are responding.
Fox News’ Stuart Varney interviewed Zane Tankel, CEO of Applebees’ franchises in New York, who said that his restaurants had to fire 1,000 servers in the past year because of the higher minimum wage.
“If something becomes prohibitively priced, you find an alternative,” Tankel told Fox. “I’ve always said increasing minimum wage is technology’s best friend.”
Tankel said that remaining server’s responsibilities were more like concierges, who assist customers with tablets and meets any immediate needs.
“The model now that we’re heading towards where we had one server for three or four tables, we’re moving towards one server for ten tables, eliminating about two-thirds of our labor ultimately,” Tankel said. “But it’s because of Cuomo, De Blasio, the liberal agenda.”
Ahhhh, the minimum wage, a socialists dream come true!
Applebee’s is still in business?
So it still ends up being more work for higher pay, except the raise is not based on efficiency or personal effort on the part of the server, but is arbitrary and disruptive.
The irony is it is the liberal elites that are hysterical about AI taking over and yet they continuously enact policies that promote businesses to move to relying on technology to stay profitable or even viable.
$15/hour? Why stop there? If raising the minimum wage increases opportunity and prosperity, why stop at $15/hour? I would think that a more prosperous number would fall between $150-$200/hour. Actually, why stop there? With fiat currency at our disposal, reality is as we make it, so shoot for an hourly wage that would eliminate poverty and income inequality forever! Maybe $1,200/hour would do it!
At some point Atlas will shrug.
Politicians never learn that they cannot dictate either supply or demand. They believe that if they require Applebee’s to pay $15, it is the fault of Applebee’s if fewer people are working at that wage than at the former $10 wage.
Politicians tend to create a wave of ignorance and then ride it for all it’s worth. Ignorant people are easier to control.
If you’re making $15/hr why should i have to tip you?
Plus the other delicious thing regressive liberals fail to realize is that these lost jobs effect the revenue stream the state gets. Negatively of course.
Granted whatever income tax NY is pilfering off the workers is minor (assuming a 25 hour work week), when you knock off 1000 employees it adds up. Then of course those 1000 employees I’d bet can kick back for a bit to collect unemployment at the state’s expense. I also think that now Applebees (and other restaurants) that employee the Kiosk technology also can write off the depreciation of the equipment on a yearly basis for a number of years, reducing their tax burden a bit.
Then in the end you’ll have the few workers remaining busting their ass to service 10 tables instead of 3-4 and complain that the raise to $15 was not worth it. Liberal regressives will pat themselves on the shoulder for showing they care for the little guy, again not realizing they have made things a lot worse by thinking they could tinker with the laws of supply and demand without consequences.
This is the problem with the politics of good intentions.
No thought or consideration is given to the consequences of what you do.
You don’t have to be a freaking economist to know that forcing businesses to pay a wage they can’t afford will result in fewer jobs, fewer hours and closed businesses.
New York is already lagging behind economically. And that asshole Cuomo seems hell-bent on making matters worse.
Pretty soon the PhD in classical studies won’t have a place to ask “Would you like fries with that?”out the drive-thru window.
Market forces should determine wages, not the Gummint.
This will end terribly. $15/hr plus 15% tip on 10 tables. I wonder if they will make more than management.
There won’t BE many tips. Restaurants pay servers less than minimum wage because they expect tips to make up the difference. Since they now have to pay the $15/hr minimum, there’ll be higher prices, less service, and fewer amenities. Want a packet of ketchup for those fries? That’ll be 50 cents. Each. Coffee refill? $8 please.
You’ll have to give me not merely good but EXCEPTIONAL service if you want a tip from me. Can you do that if you’re trying to handle ten tables?
Something else – the chance you’ll ever get a raise is zero and you’d better have a college degree if you want to try for management… heck, maybe anything more than fry cook.
Interesting. If the server load was ok at 3 tables, what’s it going to be like at 10? Either the table or the menus are going to have to be computerised and stupid-proofed else Applebee’s sales will go down the crapper. However, if it works I suspect you could get to 1 to 10 pretty easily and use busboys as your servers. You’d have to work the kinks out (cash vs credit/debit) and check skippers but it could work. If they could make it work reasonably well all the other chains would line up next to them. Then the bars and pretty well all the hospitality industry could take a huge trimming. Welcome to the Amazon.com world of employment.
Lets see………we have govmt controlled media(dem party), auto industry, Insurance industry,healthcare industry,construction industry,social security,military,police,justice system,taxing & licensing control, food & drug industries, energy industry,travel & transportation industries,communication industry……whats left ? Applebee’s is barely a drip in the big pond of socialism my friends.
Applebee’s uses a pay-at-the-table pad that also lets you play games on it (for a cost). You can order to-go and add desserts, etc. The one I used was less than obvious on how to use it, and frankly, I detest the damn things. Want to mess them up? Swap them around between tables because each table’s order is tied to the box on it. “Why are you charging me for this when I never ordered it?!” LOL
I don’t like Applebee’s or their kin. For one thing, all they have is foo-foo food. They used to have things like spaghetti or chicken parmesan, but not any more. I’d need what’s his name to order for me like at the sandwich shop in Noo Yawk because, besides burgers, all they have is yuppie sh*t. Also, if I have to pay $9.50 for a cheeseburger, I want pleasant service and shouldn’t need to raise my hand like in gradeschool to get their attention because they’re too busy to check on my table once in awhile.
SQUIRREL!
This was never about the poor schlep striving to get a head start working for minimum wage.
This was about increasing the base level value of entry level workers in order to raise Federal, Union and and other crony wages.
After all, my union boys shouldn’t be earning entry level wages with one year on the job, they deserve more.
Once the raises cascade up the chain, the dues increase to the Organization and the progressive politicians get bigger kickbacks, er I mean donations.
This isn’t about those willing to work for minimum wage, they’re just pawns. They’ll be placated with generous welfare benefits.
@ The Gunny
Abso-freaking-lutely.
It’s all about political pocket lining, nothing more.
The local burger emporium in my local put in tablets a couple of years ago. Although these particular tablets only allowed you to order appetizers and pay the bill, the servers weren’t stupid – they knew eventually these things would replace many of them. After all, how difficult is it to reprogram a system to add the full menu?
As an additional bonus, I happen to like the table top tablets because when I’m done, I can immediately pay the bill and leave. Restaurants like them too; table turnover is increased.
Gimme a job, low pay under the table, in a joint serving coney island hot dogs. Table turn over every 15 minutes max. Good times.
I can imagine a sign in the employee restroom saying in spanish: “employees must use toilet paper”. For the benefit of the illegal alien kitchen workers.
The guy working at the auto parts store isn’t making $15. And I never even thought of tipping him. Or a Walmart clerk. This is ludicrous.