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One Portland, Oregon restaurant is taking a different approach to paying staff in the wake of an employee shortage afflicting the hospitality industry.
Bonnie Morales, the owner of Kachka, told KATU that they won't take tips anymore. Instead, they will be adding a 22% service fee to customers' bills, bringing the base wage of Kachka workers to $25 an hour. The business will also start providing healthcare.
Morales says the feedback has been mostly positive, with some critics saying they would rather reward good service with tips. Such criticisms can be found under KATU reporter Megan Allison's Twitter post about the change:
"It's not about the money. It's about showing your appreciation to the server," one user wrote. "The more you tip the more appreciation you show in how well they did. Managers getting the tip money is a big middle finger to not only the waiters but the patrons as well."
"If it were just about paying a fair wage, they’d just raise their prices... Hopefully they don’t lose all their customers over it and their employees end up having to look for new jobs," according to another comment.
This is Morales' response to the criticism:
"When you have a performance review at work your boss isn’t saying, 'You know what, I’m going to cut your pay 20% today, this week because you aren’t doing so hot.' That doesn’t happen and that should not happen to any restaurant worker either."
To make sure future patrons aren't surprised by the new fee, Morales says they're providing as much up-front info as possible through social media updates, reservation pages, and text alerts.