Growing Better Jobs: Improving Job Quality in the Restaurant Industry
By Maureen Conway
Bars and restaurants added 41,000 jobs in February, accounting for 18% of the better-than-expected February jobs numbers. Unfortunately the restaurant sector, like many growing sectors in the American economy, is characterized by a high proportion of low-wage jobs. For many hard working food servers and preparers, unpredictable schedules, lack of health insurance, no paid sick time, and few if any employment benefits are endemic.
These challenges and more were discussed on Wednesday, March 7th at a lunchtime panel, From Fast Food to Fine Dining: A Discussion on Work in the Restaurant Industry. The conversation was the kick-off to a new Economic Opportunities Program discussion series titled, “Reinventing Low-Wage Work: Ideas That Work for Employees, Employers and the Economy,” and featured remarks by Congresswoman Donna Edwards and Helen Neuborne, senior program officer at the Ford Foundation, as well as an panel including Saru Jayaraman, executive director of Restaurant Opportunities Center United, John Schmitt, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and Andy Shallal, restaurateur and owner of Busboys and Poets. The discussion was moderated by Peter Edelman, professor of law at Georgetown University.
The discussion highlighted not only the challenges of work in the restaurant industry, but also ideas for consumers, businesses, policymakers and workforce development leaders about how they can contribute to making work better, while still supporting a vibrant and growing restaurant sector.
Watch the video:
Comments
Sadly the restaurant at the Aspen Institute in Aspen Colorado continues to underperform as a place to work.
Because of the type of property, (mostly conference goers) the restaurant offers up mostly banquet style dining.
Dolce runs the restaurant on a contract basis for the Institute. Dolce pays servers a flat rate of 17 dollars per hour. Most of the servers work seasonally and receive no benefits at all. They often hire European visa workers rather than local people in the valley.
Because the Institute is a "non-profit" organization Dolce feels the need to constantly offers as little as possible to the most basic level of worker. Dolce claims it runs a "green property". Nothing could be further from the truth.
The waste from kitchen's purchasing department along with dubious efforts to recycle suggest the Institute continues to follow down the path of "do as I say, not as I do" If the institute really cared about the topics they speak of, they would start with a review of their own restaurants on their own properties.
Perhaps Walter Issacson should make sure Dolce does what they claim they do before the Institute becomes a victim of its own poor service.
Dear Anonymous,
Thank you for sharing your comments about the Aspen Meadows. Year round over 120 employees now serve the many guests who frequent the property for vacation, business or conference meetings. Our annualized occupancy tops the area competition with very few weeks resulting in occupancy below 70%.
The employees working on a year round status receive an outstanding benefits package. Today, over 75% of the employees working are eligible for the full benefits package. We regularly conduct competitive wage reviews to ensure our compensation plan is attractive. The Staff is selected based on qualifications and all wages, benefits and training opportunities are shared at the time of hire. Because the Aspen area enjoys significantly higher occupancy in June, July and August; there are many summer seasonal positions. Our recruitment plan includes specifically looking for individuals who want to enjoy summer seasonal work opportunities. As full-time opportunities come available, we always work to promote from within, so seasonal positions do provide a path to full time employment!
There are a number of agencies who work with universities and schools abroad helping students wishing to visit our country on a Travel and Work Visa to gain work experience in America. While we have worked with them at varying levels of staffing needs, during 2011, only 3% of the total hours worked by all staff were from foreign workers. In all circumstances our goal is to hire locally to ensure our employees will be successful as the high cost of living in our area can be a deterrent.
Though no business achieves 100% consistency with respect to recycling, the Aspen Meadows staff, Dolce and the Aspen Institute is committed to reducing waste, improving energy efficiency, and reusing vital packaging for recycling in all areas of the operation. We recycle cardboard, newspapers, glass, aluminum, office paper and we even began a composting program last summer in partnership with The City of Aspen! We estimate we prevent over 500 tons of waste from ending up in our landfill on an annual basis. This is measured by an analysis of the size of our recycling containers and the number of times our local service comes to the property for pick up.
Regularly we are inspected by outside independent hospitality auditors for brand compliance as well to ensure our marketing commitments are consistent across the operation. Additionally, we meet the certification requirement for ZG Green, a local City of Aspen initiative; as well the International Association of Conference Center hotel’s recognizes us as meeting their Gold Certification.
I am available at any time to review our operation plan in person or discuss any on- going concerns you wish to share. Please do not hesitate to contact me directly. My contact information is below.
Again thank you for sharing your concerns,
Jud Hawk
General Manager
Phone: (970) 544 7811
Email: jud.hawk@aspenmeadows.com