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Comment by forgotmyhnacc | Hacker News Reader

Many restaurant owners in the bay area are annoyed at Google and Facebook, because they keep on hiring away their line cooks and other staff with higher pay and better benefits.

I suppose this article is on the front page because it bashes tech companies though.

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It can simultaneously be the case that restaurant workers are underpaid and that the jobs at Facebook/Google are better paid. These workers may have improved their pay but still not be making enough to make ends meet.

Also, in many (but certainly not all) restaurants tips are shared with back of house staff.

> Many restaurant owners in the bay area are annoyed at Google and Facebook, because they keep on hiring away their line cooks and other staff with higher pay and better benefits.

To be fair, and this is certainly the case in the UK for all but the 0.1% of absolute best restaurants, this is not a terribly high bar for Google and Facebook to stagger over.

Restaurant pay is, by and large (and even in restaurants that serve good food), not good at all.

A lack of affordable housing is also causing problems in other areas that don't have a large tech economy, like Jackson Hole and other ski towns.

So what you're saying basically is -- because (some of) the restaurant industry pays even worse than tech --

That the tech industry's pay levels are, ergo, no problem at all?

The parent is saying that if you're going to fight for labor you should probably start with the local restaurants, because they're the biggest problem. If that doesn't fit the "stick it to the big corp" thing then I guess things might be more complicated than that.

Another way of looking at the issue is - we can also make a lot of progress if we set certain standards for those companies that are clearly able to pay more.

Or simple cut out the benefit altogether, which will depress the wage below what it is now plus increase unemployment.

Interesting. Do you have any sources re: local business owners having issues with this?

This is a legitimate question and I'm not sure why you were downvoted. I don't have any sources, I only have first hand accounts of owners and people who have switched to tech companies.

However, you can compare the average wage of a line cook by looking at job listings and compare that to what was listed in the article posting, $23 an hour.

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