Restaurants and stores say government aid is to blame for a labour shortage

[Claudia Love]

Employers want to blame government programs like CERB and EI for labor shortages, but they are the ones to blame for paying below-livable wages.

https://www.thestar.com/business/op...ANtx4hmcLyLt52JJP53nJIfrpkMxW86jw7zRov3b_Ggxo

 

[y2kmark]

This debate has been going on since Herbert Hoover at least. If you are looking to fill a job, it's hard to compete with govt. paying people for doing nothing...

 

[jcpro]

Stopped at Hooter's today for a beer and talked to a couple of servers. The shortage of employees is a fact and they will literally hire anybody with a heartbeat to fill the openings.

 

[Nesbot]

This debate has been going on since Herbert Hoover at least. If you are looking to fill a job, it's hard to compete with govt. paying people for doing nothing...

Oh yes. Lets rush to dead end small business to work your fingers to the bone for minimum wage while owner's evade taxes while complaining about "welfare". Nope. Pay a liveable wage or suffer the results of your lack of foresight.

 

[canada-man]

How Restaurants Get Away With Stealing Millions From Workers Every Year
From failing to pay overtime to not giving meal breaks, there are numerous ways for employers to cheat workers out of money

How Restaurants Get Away With Stealing Millions From Workers Every Year - Eater

 

[Mr Deeds]

Employers want to blame government programs like CERB and EI for labor shortages, but they are the ones to blame for paying below-livable wages.

https://www.thestar.com/business/op...ANtx4hmcLyLt52JJP53nJIfrpkMxW86jw7zRov3b_Ggxo

Cerb is not a liveable wage, it's welfare, the longer the Trudeau keeps handing it out the more damage is done to the economy and peoples well being. Serving jobs downtown can be very lucrative paying hundreds a night in tips. People have just become lazy. Its time to ease them off the government teat.

 

[canada-man]

 

[lomotil]

Cerb is not a liveable wage, it's welfare, the longer the Trudeau keeps handing it out the more damage is done to the economy and peoples well being. Serving jobs downtown can be very lucrative paying hundreds a night in tips. People have just become lazy. Its time to ease them off the government teat.

The pandemic bail out has created a new tier of welfare, people who previously worked because they had to and wanted to distinct from the pre-Covid welfare recipients. The new tier of welfare recipients risk becoming unemployable through developing poor work ethic and attitude problems due to the extended subsidizes lay off.
Historically immigrants took up jobs that Canadians would not do but the pandemic has cut off this vital immigration supply chain ( sex workers included) for the foreseeable future. Employers before scoffed at paying lazy Canadians more to entice them off social assistance because immigrants could take up the slack but those days are over , at least for now.

 

[Ref]

I wonder if any of these places are offering people a cash paid position off the books?

 

[glamphotographer]

After the 1918 pandemic, wages went up as demand for labor went up. Won't happen this time around. A friend told me he took his family to the Islands on the civic holiday, ordered a whole pizza from pizza pizza, his kids were hungry, it was a 2-hour wait, lines were long, Pizza Pizza was short-staffed, only 3 people working that day. Poorly run business operation. The price of food goes up but not the service. I told him to bring his own food next time. The #Fordthwave and next lockdown aren't going to help either

 

[xix]

I knew a guy whose family owned a restaurant. Then he became a server during University. The stories he told me how the 2 tier top people scammed money from the hard workers was unbelievable. You better know your math and estimate who is making the money so your tip split is close to even and not a big fluctuation from the other server if there is a tip pool system. He told me why some establishment succeed and others don't. But the pay has to be hire to entice people to work there if they are not making tips.

There is to much abuse on the female servers. Catering seems to be better in a way but it depends on location, time of year, and co-operation by other staff.

Let's not forget I seen the owner drive fancy cars. Good for them but don't bitch about no staff. You are half the problem.

 

[xix]

After the 1918 pandemic, wages went up as demand for labor went up. Won't happen this time around. A friend told me he took his family to the Islands on the civic holiday, ordered a whole pizza from pizza, his kids were hungry, it was a 2-hour wait, lines were long, Pizza Pizza was short-staffed, only 3 people working that day. Poorly run business operation. The price of food goes up but not the service. I told him to bring his own food next time. The #Fordthwave and next lockdown aren't going to help either

Timms pays min wage or 14.00 to be there at 6am to be given ugly faces by patrons. I seen staff walking ( bus stop is far from work), getting off bus in the wee hours in areas where it is safe and not safe. I seen first hand server take the bus 20 km to work at Timms for the extra 25c.
Try working till 10pm and reverse your travel, I seen people walking where the buses no longer run after 8pm.

This has been going on for the past 5 years now.

Would any one here do that work if they need the money?

 

[Bobzilla]

Lmao. Can you imagine how much screaming there would have been if the government had done nothing? People just like to bitch about the government no matter what.

As someone who was a restaurant manager a lifetime ago & now works for the government, I know about both sides. Fact is, the restaurant business has been risky as fuck for years. The pandemic hurt it hugely, but those CRB benefits are coming to an end, so it's only a matter of time before people realize that it's going to come down to making a choice to go back to work and starving.

The other factor is, the CRB benefits only had 10% tax withheld. A LOT of people won't be getting refunds next year who have previously been used to getting them.

 

[HEYHEY]

Employers want to blame government programs like CERB and EI for labor shortages, but they are the ones to blame for paying below-livable wages.

https://www.thestar.com/business/op...ANtx4hmcLyLt52JJP53nJIfrpkMxW86jw7zRov3b_Ggxo

Sure raise the wages, but now your burger and fries are 25$ instead of $10

Guess what, that livable wage is no longer a livable wage again lol

If you knew the profit margins of a restaurant you would stop spewing nonsense such as just pay the employees more

 

[james t kirk]

Cerb is not a liveable wage, it's welfare, the longer the Trudeau keeps handing it out the more damage is done to the economy and peoples well being. Serving jobs downtown can be very lucrative paying hundreds a night in tips. People have just become lazy. Its time to ease them off the government teat.

Some people are collecting CERB and working for cash under the radar. They don't want to go back to working on the books.

 

[james t kirk]

Timms pays min wage or 14.00 to be there at 6am to be given ugly faces by patrons. I seen staff walking ( bus stop is far from work), getting off bus in the wee hours in areas where it is safe and not safe. I seen first hand server take the bus 20 km to work at Timms for the extra 25c.
Try working till 10pm and reverse your travel, I seen people walking where the buses no longer run after 8pm.

This has been going on for the past 5 years now.

Would any one here do that work if they need the money?

My first job at the age of 14 was stripping paint from baseboards from old houses in the north end of Hamilton for $2.45 per hour. And I took the yellow rocket to get there.

So yeah, call it character building.

 

[black booty lover]

In my mind it's not a black and white issue. There are a lot of variables and contributing factors. While a number of people take advantage of CERB, in general it can't be the sole reason restaurants have problems filling positions. The whole dine-in industry is a joke. You have line cooks and dish washers slaving away in a hot kitchen making minimum wage or a few bucks more, getting treated like shit by greedy entitled servers who are impossible to appease as manager. You either haven't given them enough tables, or you given them to many tables, and once they make their money they just want to get the fuck out the place. Now being a GOOD server can be difficult, and it's a different skill set then a dishwasher, but I can tell you most aren't humble people that say "without this dishwasher slaving away making peanuts, I wouldn't be walking out of here tonight with 200 bucks cash in my pocket from tips". The problem isn't the back of the house staff are saying to themself "why wash dishes until 3am in a hot kitchen for minimum wage being treated like shit by servers when I can collect CERB?" The back of the house staff is saying "why wash dishes until 3am in a hot kitchen for minimum wage being treated shit by servers, when I can work a easier job with better hours for the same money?" Some even realize "Hey, if I'm going to work like a dog, I might as well go get a factory job that pays way better".

Now onto the next problem, the dine-in industry is in trouble. Adolescents don't go to restaurants anymore. It's all skip the dishes and uber eats so severs aren't making the money they used to when restaurants could bank on certain times and days being packed. So now your seeing less people wanting to serve because the money isn't what it used to be.

Only the good dine-in restaurants are going survive. The industry in general already had one of the highest rates of going belly up, and it's only going to get worse.

 

[rhuarc29]

Private sector is in rough shape in this country, aside from big conglomerates like Walmart and such. Private sector has to compete for labor with ridiculous compensation and benefit packages for public workers, whilst simultaneously competing for jobs that are being outsourced overseas. The government seems intent to "raise all tides" by paying more and more generous amounts to public workers, without seemingly realizing that money comes from the private sector, which is already under threat.

You can accuse small business owners of jipping their workers, but the honest truth is that if they raise those wages, they price themselves out and go under. Most restaurants right now are just barely scrapping by. And even pre-pandemic, restaurant margins were fairly slim. It's nice to think that they could just simply pay more, but the problem is deeper than that. It's foundational, and rooted in our decisions on Canada's labor and trade policies. Our private sector was much more robust decades ago, when we weren't buying so goddamn much from China, and were paying our public sector workers more in-line with the private sector.

 

[james t kirk]

In my mind it's not a black and white issue. There are a lot of variables and contributing factors. While a number of people take advantage of CERB, in general it can't be the sole reason restaurants have problems filling positions. The whole dine-in industry is a joke. You have line cooks and dish washers slaving away in a hot kitchen making minimum wage or a few bucks more, getting treated like shit by greedy entitled servers who are impossible to appease as manager. You either haven't given them enough tables, or you given them to many tables, and once they make their money they just want to get the fuck out the place. Now being a GOOD server can be difficult, and it's a different skill set then a dishwasher, but I can tell you most aren't humble people that say "without this dishwasher slaving away making peanuts, I wouldn't be walking out of here tonight with 200 bucks cash in my pocket from tips". The problem isn't the back of the house staff are saying to themself "why wash dishes until 3am in a hot kitchen for minimum wage being treated like shit by servers when I can collect CERB?" The back of the house staff is saying "why wash dishes until 3am in a hot kitchen for minimum wage being treated shit by servers, when I can work a easier job with better hours for the same money?" Some even realize "Hey, if I'm going to work like a dog, I might as well go get a factory job that pays way better".

Now onto the next problem, the dine-in industry is in trouble. Adolescents don't go to restaurants anymore. It's all skip the dishes and uber eats so severs aren't making the money they used to when restaurants could bank on certain times and days being packed. So now your seeing less people wanting to serve because the money isn't what it used to be.

Only the good dine-in restaurants are going survive. The industry in general already had one of the highest rates of going belly up, and it's only going to get worse.

Take out ends up soggy and tastes like shit.

During the pandemic, I resorted to takeout, but a huge number of things just don't travel well. I would always pick it up myself to make sure the restaurants didn't have to pay the shysters like Ubereats and Skip the Dishes, et al. I would make a point of getting to the restaurant well before the resto said it would be ready to ensure that it was immediately out of the oven. (Something no food delivery service would ever do.). And I would be very generous with the tip to thank the restaurant for their efforts. More than I would have tipped if I was eating in.

But by the time I got home, the steam had usually done a number on the food. Soggy and warm at best.

I guess a lot of kids think it's cool to order on line and eat in their parents' basement, but I'm not of that generation. I love a good meal that is prepared in a restaurant and is fresh out of the kitchen and I will pay for it. Even a simple restaurant meal like fish and chips, if given the choice between take out and dining room, I will pick dining room every time. Never mind a high end dining experience, that goes without saying, it's always dine in. The only reason I would ever do takeout is a forced pandemic shutdown.

 

[jcpro]

Take out ends up soggy and tastes like shit.

During the pandemic, I resorted to takeout, but a huge number of things just don't travel well. I would always pick it up myself to make sure the restaurants didn't have to pay the shysters like Ubereats and Skip the Dishes, et al. I would make a point of getting to the restaurant well before the resto said it would be ready to ensure that it was immediately out of the oven. (Something no food delivery service would ever do.). And I would be very generous with the tip to thank the restaurant for their efforts. More than I would have tipped if I was eating in.

But by the time I got home, the steam had usually done a number on the food. Soggy and warm at best.

I guess a lot of kids think it's cool to order on line and eat in their parents' basement, but I'm not of that generation. I love a good meal that is prepared in a restaurant and is fresh out of the kitchen and I will pay for it. Even a simple restaurant meal like fish and chips, if given the choice between take out and dining room, I will pick dining room every time. Never mind a high end dining experience, that goes without saying, it's always dine in. The only reason I would ever do takeout is a forced pandemic shutdown.

Fish and chips does not travel at all!! Medium rare steak? Ditto! Even pizza must get home asap to be edible. Uber Eats and all that shit are good only for mere survival. I also do personal take out only and only if I know I'll get home within 15 minutes. Otherwise you're just throwing away money on shitty food.