<story><title>Restaurant workers quit at record rate</title><url>https://www.npr.org/2021/07/20/1016081936/low-pay-no-benefits-rude-customers-restaurant-workers-quit-at-record-rate</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>throwawayboise</author><text>McDonald&amp;#x27;s and similar jobs used to be an entry level job for teens and college students. When I was 16 I was happy to work there for minimum wage ($3.35&amp;#x2F;hr at the time). Nobody other than the mangers did it to support a family. It was never understood to be that kind of job. I don&amp;#x27;t know how we got to the point where a no-skills-required job that anyone with a pulse can learn to do in a few hours suddenly became required to support a family of four.</text></item><item><author>lashloch</author><text>There&amp;#x27;s something amusing to me about the idea of an industry that &amp;quot;used to be&amp;quot; sustainable. Guess it wasn&amp;#x27;t sustainable after all.</text></item><item><author>darth_avocado</author><text>It used to be. When ordering food in a restaurant was a special thing for special occasions. It was expensive to eat out and the workers were compensated for it. Then we got to a place where food was supposed fast, cheap and accessible to everyone at any time. And suddenly you couldn&amp;#x27;t charge a lot for your food and worker wages stagnated. Sure more people work in the restaurant industry than they ever did before, but that&amp;#x27;s what happens. Quantity over quality in almost any service industry always means abundance of the service at the expense of the workers. Take a look at the rideshare business.</text></item><item><author>ashtonkem</author><text>Perhaps the industry is not sustainable then.</text></item><item><author>namdnay</author><text>Honestly, as necessary as that is, it’s not a magic solution. People are quitting the restaurant industry in France too, despite having none of the tip silliness.&lt;p&gt;It’s just that people are realizing that there are easier minimum wage jobs than working in a kitchen</text></item><item><author>yepthatsreality</author><text>The restaurant industry has known the solution for a long time but everyone wants to pretend it would be too difficult.&lt;p&gt;Stop the tipping guilt trip placed on the public, raise your prices 20%, and pay your employees a livable wage. The public will still show up to eat in your restaurant.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tshaddox</author><text>&amp;gt; I don&amp;#x27;t know how we got to the point where a no-skills-required job that anyone with a pulse can learn to do in a few hours suddenly became required to support a family of four.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s an odd way of looking at it. Surely what happened first isn&amp;#x27;t that the expectations of fast food jobs changed out of the blue. Could it instead be that &lt;i&gt;other&lt;/i&gt; jobs which adults worked to support their families went away?</text></comment>
<story><title>Restaurant workers quit at record rate</title><url>https://www.npr.org/2021/07/20/1016081936/low-pay-no-benefits-rude-customers-restaurant-workers-quit-at-record-rate</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>throwawayboise</author><text>McDonald&amp;#x27;s and similar jobs used to be an entry level job for teens and college students. When I was 16 I was happy to work there for minimum wage ($3.35&amp;#x2F;hr at the time). Nobody other than the mangers did it to support a family. It was never understood to be that kind of job. I don&amp;#x27;t know how we got to the point where a no-skills-required job that anyone with a pulse can learn to do in a few hours suddenly became required to support a family of four.</text></item><item><author>lashloch</author><text>There&amp;#x27;s something amusing to me about the idea of an industry that &amp;quot;used to be&amp;quot; sustainable. Guess it wasn&amp;#x27;t sustainable after all.</text></item><item><author>darth_avocado</author><text>It used to be. When ordering food in a restaurant was a special thing for special occasions. It was expensive to eat out and the workers were compensated for it. Then we got to a place where food was supposed fast, cheap and accessible to everyone at any time. And suddenly you couldn&amp;#x27;t charge a lot for your food and worker wages stagnated. Sure more people work in the restaurant industry than they ever did before, but that&amp;#x27;s what happens. Quantity over quality in almost any service industry always means abundance of the service at the expense of the workers. Take a look at the rideshare business.</text></item><item><author>ashtonkem</author><text>Perhaps the industry is not sustainable then.</text></item><item><author>namdnay</author><text>Honestly, as necessary as that is, it’s not a magic solution. People are quitting the restaurant industry in France too, despite having none of the tip silliness.&lt;p&gt;It’s just that people are realizing that there are easier minimum wage jobs than working in a kitchen</text></item><item><author>yepthatsreality</author><text>The restaurant industry has known the solution for a long time but everyone wants to pretend it would be too difficult.&lt;p&gt;Stop the tipping guilt trip placed on the public, raise your prices 20%, and pay your employees a livable wage. The public will still show up to eat in your restaurant.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cratermoon</author><text>&amp;gt; Nobody other than the mangers did it to support a family. It was never understood to be that kind of job&lt;p&gt;Wrong.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;From the beginning, the minimum wage was meant to be a living wage—meaning families could live off of the pay comfortably, rather than struggling paycheck-to-paycheck&amp;quot; &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.lendio.com&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;minimum-wage-livable&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.lendio.com&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;minimum-wage-livable&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>