Waiters Reject Signing Bonuses, Hobbling an $860 Billion Industry
From Chipotle to your neighborhood cafe, owners are raising pay to attract people to cook, serve, and wash dishes.
Chef Dan Jacobs’s restaurants have long been fixtures on best-of-Milwaukee lists. One of his latest, called EsterEv, offers an eclectic mix of gourmet and comfort food: The $65, five-course menu features caviar tater tots and schmaltz-and-poppy-seed focaccia with hot mustard butter. But while diners may be eager to return, Jacobs can’t find enough workers to get his place back up and running.
He’s offering $40,000-a-year salaries and $20 an hour for part-timers. He’s begging on Craigslist. He’s even scouting people who’ve served time in prison. No luck. “It’s a coin flip,” Jacobs says of the chances that EsterEv and his other two restaurants will survive. “I have to be realistic and realize there is a distinct chance this will not work.”