Restaurant server’s wage is set to be eliminated by next year, bringing the minimum to just over $15.00 an hour, as outlined in this year’s B.C. Budget.
The Provincial Restaurant and Food Services Association is worried that while servers will be getting a boost, small business owners will be taking a hit.
“They are really in a tough situation, their occupancy costs are going up, their labour costs are going up, their payroll costs are going up because of the BC Medical Services Premiums tax,” said Ian Tostenson president of the B.C. Restaurant and Food Services Association.
“I think wages going up really hurts the small guys. they have less ability to be able to recover those costs than the chains.”
The NDP claims the February 18th budget focuses on fairness for some of B.C.’s lowest-paid workers.
“The other thing they did was eliminate what they call the server differential, that was a different wage rate for servers who made tips vs non-tipped employees, typically in the kitchen,”
The difference was about 2 dollars an hour, and according to Tostenson, it made a big difference to businesses, especially smaller ‘mom and pop’ operations.
“They are really thrown a lot of curves, so we try to help them through that.”
Tostenson doesn’t believe it will make much of a difference for job competition or ‘tipping culture’, however.
“We have a really interesting situation right now, in our industry, there is a shortage of workers, and it’s particularly acute in kitchens,” he said.
He explained most restaurant-goers in North America tip for service and experience, not based on the wages of their servers.
There are approximately 180 thousand workers in the food industry and 13,000 restaurants, and the Association estimates each restaurant is short at least one or two employees.
There are two more increases planned to bring minimum to 15 dollars across the board, with the next increase to $14.60 this summer.
Minimum wage increase plans here:
– with files from Catherine Garrett, MyPGNow.com