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Comment by indecisive_user | Hacker News Reader

From the article;

>And because of California labor laws, even tipped workers like servers earn at least the full minimum wage, unlike their peers in most other states.

So at least in San Francisco they're saving $15< per hour

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I was under the impression that this was the case everywhere - if a server doesn't make minimum wage with tips, the restaurant owner is required to make up the difference.

(Now, whether that actually happens or not...)

No - california waiters get minimum wage plus tips. Some of them make six figures. Their cultural negotiation of the standard trip from 15% to 20% was a genius bit of persuasion relying on the American discomfort with service workers. Nobody’s talking about how “hard work” bathroom cleaning is and tipping their office janitor, despite the fact that their office janitor is working much harder for much lower wages.

Ah, I see, I misunderstood.

It's more like 25k than 6 figures.

In expensive restaurants waiters can make BANK if they're being tipped well.

Waiters Georg is an outlier and should not have been counted.

Six figures is the top earners at the top restaurants, for sure.

Of which there are not many. More common is the regular restaurant, where no server is making six figures.

Well, probably more. It also takes people to manage, schedule, and hire those other employees.

If you're business is going under because you can't afford $15 an hour you should be shutting down anyway.

A rule of thumb, 1/3 on wages, 1/3 on capital, 1/3 for everything else. If you're not meeting that you'll be closing soon.

> 1/3 on wages, 1/3 on capital, 1/3 for everything else

You're criticizing businesses for following your prescription. They were 1/3-1/3-1/3. Wages went up. Quantity of labor demanded is being reduced to compensate.

Exactly. And restaurants already operate on very tight profit margins (~5%).

If 1/3 of their cost went to labor in 2014 when the minimum wage was $10.74, the proportion will be much higher at a minimum wage of $15 in 2018.

Sure they could raise prices, but you risk pricing customers out, and as the one restaurant owner discovered, customers will still spend the same amount by ordering less or cheaper items.

>>> Sure they could raise prices, but you risk pricing customers out, and as the one restaurant owner discovered, customers will still spend the same amount by ordering less or cheaper items.

Wouldn't all their competitors face the same "problem"? So it wouldn't be a "problem" in the end?

Eating at a restaurant is a luxury not a necessity. Thus, if all the restaurants in a certain area were more expensive than what they were comfortable with, people might eat out less in general.

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