I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

I’ve been in the restaurant business for a million years.  

Not to exaggerate, but it’s seriously been, off and on for 43 years.  

There is very little that I can say at this point is a first experience for me.  

I’ve washed dishes, cooked, waited tables, hosted, bartended, managed, all of the things.  And at the time I did these things, I was pretty fucking good at them.  

I’ve also experienced all the things with customers.  Being yelled at.  Given a gym membership as a tip.  Been aske out.  Been told I’m the best.  Been told I’m the worst.  I’ve seen customers physically assault managers and servers.  I saw a host slap a guest and get arrested, although full disclosure the customer deserved it.  

Tonight, as a restaurant employee, I did something I’ve never done before.  

I spoke at a city council meeting.  

I didn’t intend to speak.  But seriously, anyone who knows me, knows I like to talk.  

Also, I’m a pretty good public speaker if I do say so myself.  

For context though, lets back up.  

In most of the United States, there is a federal minimum wage.  $7.25 if you don’t know this.  It hasn’t changed since, 2009.  

That’s $290 a week.  $15,080 a year.  

In case you don’t know this, there isn’t a single town in America that would allow someone to survive on that amount.  

In many parts of the country, states and municipalities have taken it upon themselves to raise the minimum wage to a more sustainable wage.  

Maine, and Portland are both places where this has occurred.  

As a part of the minimum wage, many states, in fact most states, offer a tip credit for employees that receive tips as part of their wage. 

In the restaurant business, that means servers and bartenders.  And sometimes support staff.  

From the business perspective, that means that we can pay a server/bartender less than the real minimum wage, as long as their tips make up the difference.  

Thus, a server making 2.13 in Kentucky, has to make at least 5.12 an hour in tips or the restaurant makes up the difference.  

In Portland, our minimum wage is $15 an hour, and the tip credit wage is $7.50. 

During a 6-hour shift, the server/bartender MUST make at least $45 in tips or the restaurant makes up the difference.  As you can imagine, this is hardly ever a problem.   

Most servers in Portland, are making upwards of 30, 40, 50 dollars an hour in addition to their $7.25 an hour.  This is the reason, so many people end up waiting tables when they are young.  This is why so many people end up waiting tables when they are middle aged.  And this is why so many people end up waiting tables in their fifties.  

The schedules are flexible.  You can work when you want.  Usually, as little or as much as you want.  Want to go to Europe for a week, just put in a request off.  Want a new pair of shoes or a purse, just pick up a shift from a co-worker.    

The money is AMAZING for a lot of people.  

Yes, there are exceptions.  But almost without fail, it’s better than other minimum wage jobs.  

In NYC there are servers making $200,000 year waiting tables.

For a run of the mill restaurant in NYC, your salary was still in the mid 70’s.  And much of that money is in cash. 

It’s the reason actors gravitate to this field.   When I moved back to NYC, I worked waiting tables.  If I needed off to do a show, I just put in the request, them when I’d be back and all was good.  

I bring all of this up, because the city of Portland, announced a week or so ago, that they were going to vote on putting the tip credit wage up to a vote on a referendum.  If it passed servers would move from $7.25 to $15.00.    

Owners would make up that additional payment.  $7.25 an hour.  

In case you didn’t know it, very few people get rich owning and running a restaurant.  The profit margin when all is said and done at the end of the day is usually less than 5%.  In case you don’t want to do the math, that’s about 50k profit, after all the bills are paid on every million you sell. 

Some do better.  Most do worse.  60% of all restaurants fail in the first year.  80% fail in the first five years.   

A sane person would ask you if it is worth it.  

You’ve read my stories.  You know it’s not for the feint of heart.  

To lose the tip credit would cost my restaurant an approximate $3,000 more a week.  Times 52, equals $156,000.  

To cover that, we’d raise prices, A LOT, or institute a service charge policy that goes to the house, not the staff, OR go to counter service which seems to be the way of the future. 

Translated, the customer would suffer, the staff would suffer, and many might lose jobs.  

It’s a no-win situation. 

The Portland City Council met tonight.  

They did this in the middle of the busy season, making it hard for a lot of people to attend.  

They did this without a lot of public awareness.   

I did something I’ve never done before at 4:00 tonight.  I walked from work to the Portland City Hall.  

I met Adam at the steps of city hall, and we walked in hand in hand.  

We were told the chamber was full, and were sent to an overflow room.  

Surely this was a good sign. 

What we didn’t know, was we were going to be at the end of the evening.  

We had to sit through liquor license approvals.  Zoning approvals.  Short Term Rental regulation changes.  

All with a chance for public input.  One green-shirted man spoke at least three times before our cause came up, and he was still there when we left.  

The agenda kept going on and on.  

After two hours, a recess was called.  

We all took a break, where I may or may not have stolen a can of Polar soda water, from the city hall kitchen.  I only knew it was there, after I saw the Mayor go in and get one.  

After about 15 minutes, the council meeting started again.

It was still a good 45 minutes still till they got to our reason for being there.  

Finally.  

The mayor read the proposal. 

The floor was opened to discussion.  

In the chamber, there is the main floor and the gallery.  

The mayor alternated between up and down for the next hour, with each speaker getting three minutes. 

The people just kept coming. 

Servers who’d taken the night off from work.  

Owners speaking of their concern of cost and profit margins.  

Servers who were worried about their jobs.  

Bartenders who know that they’ll make far more with the current system, than any updated system. 

Some of these servers/bartenders were young.  Some were older than me.  

Some came with written remarks.  

Some spoke off the cuff, with passion.  

All of their messages were the same.  

We make 30, 40, 50 an hour.  You are fixing a problem that doesn’t exist.  You are addressing a problem, that was brought to the voters just two years ago, and was very seriously defeated at 61%.  You’ve brought forth this idea, without engaging with service workers.  

And the people kept coming. 

Finally, my boss got up to speak.  

And was followed by more and more people.  

Around this time, it occurred to me that something I felt was important, had not been said.  

I got out my calculator and did some quick math.  

The time for speaking was ending.  

I stood up and approached the podium.

Hi, my name is Jeff Fightmaster, and I’m the Director of Operations for David’s Restaurant.  

I can’t tell you exactly what I said, but it amounted to…

As a city council you have heard people over and over tonight, say that they make 30, 40, 50 dollars an hour.  If you take out your little calculator and so some basic math, you’ll see that at 30, 40, 50 bucks an hour, at 40 hours a week, at 52 weeks a year, that means that our hospitality workers are making 50, 60, 70+ thousand dollars a year.  

These salaries are more than our state police officers make as a starting salary.  It’s more than ed techs make.  It’s more than teachers make.  

There is indeed a problem that needs to be solved.  But this is not one of them.  

You’ve heard people tell you all night that they don’t want this.  You’ve heard how it will affect owners, and yet here we are still fixing a problem that doesn’t need to be fixed.  

As a city council, you are here to help the people, but you are not helping the people that want it. 

There is so much in this city that needs your attention.  Let’s look at housing costs.  Let’s look at the homeless situation.  Let’s look at the parking situation in the Old Port and downtown.  These things need your help. 

But please stop trying to fix a problem, that doesn’t exist.  

And then I thanked them and sat down.  

My heart was pounding.  And I couldn’t believe I’d done it. 

Then the meeting continued.

And then we got to see democracy in action.  

We got to see a city council member act according to her own agenda, and accused the speakers of being a well-oiled lobby machine who’d coordinated efforts to make sure our voice was heard. 

I guess along with maître-d I’m now a lobbyist.  

Ultimately, instead of sending the vote to the people, it was suggested it go back to committee to get a full public discussion before it moved forward.  

This was the way to appease everyone.  

The councilor who brought forth the proposal wasn’t told no.  It doesn’t really move forward.  

And truth be told, based on what the other city council members said, they weren’t going to vote for it anyway.  

Tonight, I got to take part in the democratic process, and I feel better for having done so.  

Supposedly, a video will be available of the meeting, if I can I’ll post my speech.