The London Minimum Wage

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Permalink Reply by David Morton on August 18, 2009 at 9:30am

It is utterly hypocritical of the BHA, and its head Bob Cotton, to bleat continually about a "skills shortage" in the hospitality industry (see http://www.bha.org.uk/images/downloads/140509_Bob_Cotton_Speech.pdf, with opening statement by Bob Cotton stating "We all know that staff and skills shortage is one of the biggest challenges facing the industry today") while simultaneously defending slave level salaries for staff.

The primary reason for the industry skills shortage is poor salaries combined with long hours and exploitation of hospitality staff. The BHA's recent defence of the immoral practice of reducing income below NMW by abuse of a tronc system for service charges, makes it no surprise the BHA castigates the idea of LMW.

Until the industry accepts that this literal abuse of people contributes to a lack of desire on the part of educated and skilled people (with many other options) to join such a sector, the situation will not change.

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Permalink Reply by Remo Mongiat - FBII on August 20, 2009 at 6:34pm

I strongly agree that a London Minimum Wage should be legislated and also adopted by the hospitality industry. Many establishments still adopt scare tactics and hope foreigners with poor language skills will just about accept any job offers. The word slavery sometimes springs to mind. Lets pay staff for what they are worth to the business and encourage them to make catering a lucrative and successful career. After all poorly paid staff never stay for long in those establishments and as soon as they have enhanced their skills they move on asap.

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Permalink Reply by Buddy Setter on August 22, 2009 at 11:07pm

I was working for a large contract caterer two years ago when one of our clients insisted that we paid London Living Wage to our staff. The contract employed around 130 catering staff across 6 London based offices. When you employ a large work force, 60% of which are sitting at the lower end of the pay rate, it will make a huge difference to your bottom line over night. In the end the client decided to pick up the difference which was great for us.

So what happens if you give your staff more money over night without a performance review or a meeting? Well, not much is the answer. Prior to the rise being given across the six units, our catering managers either had group meetings, one-to-one performance appraisals or did nothing at all before the extra cash went into their staff bank accounts.

If you find yourself in this situation I strongly recommend that you carefully brief your workers before handing them more money. When the teams are told the money is not just because they work in London its also awarding them for their on going hard work and loyalty with a side order of a higher expectation from you based on their performance, you will benefit from it. Chuck them a raise without communication and you have wasted an opportunity.

The other plus is that you might be able to command a higher standard of any new candidate should you be recruiting.

Based on the comments form David Morten above I agree that it is about time the catering and hospitality industry was taken a little more seriously as a viable career option based on skill, training and sufficient pay rates that reflect the dam hard work rubbish hours and dedication the industry commands.

I remember interviewing a young guy for a trainee chefs position about 12 years ago. I asked him why he wanted to be a chef ? He said...
“Well, I did rubbish at school, I have no qualifications I'm not too clever so I thought I might as well be a chef” Now, I was a head chef of a 700 bedroom hotel at the time with a combined kitchen brigade of around 36, I'm sure you can guess how I responded to that comment at the time.

The I.T industry is much the same. My friend is a senior software engineer for a great firm and hates it when people say, “well I'm into computers, so I might as well do something in I.T”

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Permalink Reply by Tom Shorney on August 24, 2009 at 7:28pm

From both a student and a young persons perspective I agree that the minimum wage should be increased. From my experience of working in the hospitality industry some of the lowest paid jobs are often the most physical and demanding ones.

We are often reminded that when we enter the industry we will be starting at the bottom and will have to work our way up gaining both experience and the respect of our employers. However, with the economic climate being in the state that it is money is often a crucial factor and I feel that if the wage in London could prevent young people both from university and not entering the industry.

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Permalink Reply by Jose Ruiz on August 31, 2009 at 8:46pm

The results from our poll "Should hospitality bussineses adopt the London Minimum Wage?" are in:

26% of voters said NO, which came as a bit of a surprise. Not so much the fact that they voted against a London Minimum Wage, but that they would not actually take part in the discussion and convince the over 60% of voters who supported it to understand why a London Minimum wage would be bad for business.

Any comments?

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Permalink Reply by Jose Ruiz on March 2, 2010 at 10:07pm

Late last year I was researching an article about the minimum wage and ended up talking to Boris Johnson's office who suggested I get in touch with a group of people who are fighting to get a London Minimum Wage adopted by all in the capital. A few months and quite a number of emails later, I met them tonight and we had a good chat about the difficulties they are facing to get employers to support a London Minimum Wage initiative.

As I already discussed in my August 2009 article, the BHA is against such an initiative, and this is despite introducing themselves as an organisation that represents our industry. Don't know about you but I doubt that they represent all those waiters, kitchen porters, room attendants, etc, who day in, day out find themselves struggling to survive in the capital with a £5.80 per hour salary.

As if by chance, the evening standard ran an article this evening about London uniting against property in the capital. It is not without a sense of irony that we do not consider those earning minimum wage as living in poverty. I encourage anyone who voted against the London Minimum Wage in our poll last year (see result above) to try and live on £5,80 (or £12,064 per annum) in London and then report back on this forum.

And all along, the British Hospitality Association goes on record to say that we must do more to attract people to hospitality. Well, here is a newsflash for them: how about start by paying a living wage?

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Permalink Reply by Shannon Ewart on March 14, 2010 at 3:57pm

I have to say that that I am surprised at the attitudes of the minimum wage in London. Of course I understand that it has an impact on business' - especially small ones, however it seems unreasonable that anyone should be denied a decent wage to live. I come from canada where the minimum wage is different from province to province but IS in relation to the cost of living. I remember being shocked years ago when I arrived to learn of the typical wage in London.

Now, hoping to enter the catering industry after years making very good money pushing paper, it really makes me nervous to possibly have to live on minimum wage- especially knowing that I will probably be working a lot harder.

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Permalink Reply by Jose Ruiz on March 14, 2010 at 4:12pm

I am with you on this Shannon and think that employers who pay their staff minimum wage only are not worth working for. There are plenty of employers there who already pay way above minimum wage and very closed to what the London Minimum Wage should be. We just need to make sure that we share among ourselves who these are and then let competition do the rest.

Thanks Shannon for your comment.

Shannon said:

I have to say that that I am surprised at the attitudes of the minimum wage in London. Of course I understand that it has an impact on business' - especially small ones, however it seems unreasonable that anyone should be denied a decent wage to live. I come from canada where the minimum wage is different from province to province but IS in relation to the cost of living. I remember being shocked years ago when I arrived to learn of the typical wage in London.

Now, hoping to enter the catering industry after years making very good money pushing paper, it really makes me nervous to possibly have to live on minimum wage- especially knowing that I will probably be working a lot harder.

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