“The real problem is not being addressed,” said restaurant owner Alan Shulman. “Fifteen dollars an hour. I am not against raising the minimum wage, but the process, the whole system has to change.”
To put more starkly, “the consumer is not going to understand a $20 cocktail and a $30 hamburger,” said the owner of Akasha and Sambor in the middle of Downtown.
Question: What would Mr. Shulman do if he were in charge?
“There is just a bigger picture,” he said. “There is much more to it than raising the minimum wage.
“The bigger problem in Los Angeles is people have difficulty affording a place to live. How about if we make more affordable housing available to them? Somehow, the city should find a way to subsidize the development of more affordable housing.”
As for incrementally lifting worker wages to $15, what good will it do? Mr. Shulman wonders. “Fifteen dollars – they will pay that in taxes,” he said.
“In our industry, it is a little different. In our industry, unfortunately in California, we don’t recognize total compensation. And that ends up in inequity in the service industry.
“Minimum wage is not an issue,” Mr. Shulman said. “We don’t have minimum wage workers in our business. The only minimum wage workers we have in our business are our service staff. And the service staff is collecting – they make tips.
“All of these minimum wage increases …for the general population, I will say ‘I get it. It makes sense.’ A fair wage. The concept totally makes sense.
“But the service industry, where you have tips, is different,” Mr. Shulman said. “My bussers and runners make $16, $18 an hour.”
(To be continued)
