Shortly before opening, Casa Bonita’s new owners Matt Stone and Trey Parker decided to eliminate tipping and instead pay workers a flat wage of $30 per hour.
Now I could be wrong, but getting a an hourly wage as a restaurant worker is FAR better than relying on tips. I feel like either workers in this situation are too obsessed with tips or there’s huge context missing.
$30 an hour for a restaurant would be insanely high in my country, and our dollary-doos are only worth 2/3rds as much as US dollars, so this would be closer to $45 an hour for us. I can’t imagine that actually being sustainable in any way for the business, so I’m guessing they have a lot of strings attacked (like you have to work insane hours or lose other worker’s rights to make up for it.)
It could even be something that a lot of businesses do, where they still allow customers to tip, but don’t give that money to the employees. That could be what they’re arguing for.
EDIT: I do not know how much people are actually paid in the service industry in the US.
I live in the Denver area and make about $30 per hour and at 40 hours per week it’s enough to afford my own place, but I’m not living in luxury by any means. Rent and other living expenses are pretty high here.
My understanding is that the Casa Bonita workers aren’t able to get full time hours because the restaurant isn’t fully open yet.
$30/hr is high for FT/PT award rates in dollarydoo land but it’s not ridiculous. Level 1 casual is $29.04 weekday rate.
Upon thinking about it, I’ve realised I’ve been out of the industry for almost a decade now, so yeah, rates have probably gone up since then. I am in error.