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Ethics aside, this is bad analysis. Gas prices putting financial stress on Applebee's employees will also put financial stress on Applebee's customers, who may

Ethics aside, this is bad analysis. Gas prices putting financial stress on Applebee's employees will also put financial stress on Applebee's customers, who may cut spending on things like going to Applebee's.

jasonhansel 5y ago
It will also force employees to look for higher-paying jobs, potentially causing them to leave if Applebees doesn't raise its pay. Normally inflation is associated with higher wages, not lower ones.
- gruez 5y ago
  >It will also force employees to look for higher-paying jobs ...implying they weren't already doing so? I'm not sure about you, but I don't think applebees is the type of place you stick around for "the good work culture" or whatever.
  - wahnfrieden 5y ago
    I think you overestimate the mobility of a lot of these people. For many it will push them out of work if the wages stop covering the costs
    - gruez 5y ago
      Shouldn't it be easier to look for new jobs if you have a financial buffer? If anything being more pinched => more time being stressed out and/or more time at work (trying to rack up OT) => less time/energy to spend looking for new jobs.
      - warent 5y ago
        For one reason or another (all of which we must be empathetic to) many people resist change even to their own benefit. I think all humans are guilty of this in some form or another to varying degrees. For some people, change in job / career is met with severe resistance. It takes a catastrophe for people to get going into finding something better.
        xeromal 5y ago
        Yeah, there's probably a few aspects to that. * Fear of change has to drive a bit of it * Satisfaction: This is a personal reason of mine. I make a solid technology wage that probably rests somewhere in the middle or maybe low-middle. I could definitely find myself a 15-20% bump if I tried, but I am so damn happy with my employer that I really don't feel the need. As long as my current wage tracks inflation, I honestly would be ok with not making any more money. * Convenience
        wahnfrieden 5y ago
        Extremely neoliberal perspective
        warent 5y ago
        Interesting, thank you for the insight
  - MattGaiser 5y ago
    Plenty of people do not search for jobs unless under duress.
  - Spooky23 5y ago
    People working at these places are highly dependent on transportation and hours. When I worked retail, we were in sales and were top of the food chain. The restaurant people were a notch over regular mall workers in pay, but had to deal with different hours. Many people work multiple jobs… one line cook I remember did prep work starting at 6am at one place, painted, and closed the mall restaurant. He couldnt flip jobs easily due to bus schedules.
    - Frost1x 5y ago
      People don't realize how expensive it is to be working poor if they've never been working poor. It's a difficult trap to escape. For some it may be their own doing getting there, for others it may be environmental factors that lead them there or some combination of the two. The fact is, it's difficult to find resources to escape and you're trapped in a difficult space where gathering momentum to make even small transitions could take years of time while barely staying afloat. This is the life of the precariat class.
- ashtonkem 5y ago
  In fact, high transit costs might make low paying jobs like Applebees completely untenable. Why take a job if the cost of getting there is higher than what they pay?
  - Spooky23 5y ago
    Cash flow. Look at Uber… it wasn’t uncommon for drivers to pay Uber to work as comp was less than depreciation. They were basically working for free to cash out car equity.
crackercrews 5y ago
I agree they may need to cut their prices. How would this email have been received if it had said: We are facing headwinds and may need to cut prices To stay viable this means we need to cut costs One way to do this is offer lower starting wages. Though this wasn't viable in the recent past, it may be possible now. That's because our pool of workers are feeling pinched and may need to pick up extra jobs I understand he does not talk about the need to tighten the belt on prices in his email. But obviously all restaurants have been under pressure with COVID and inflation. It may be understood by the recipients that they need to cut costs wherever possible.
- munk-a 5y ago
  I think maybe workers would be receptive to this if it weren't for the fact that whenever there's plenty of cash going around it doesn't loosen the belts of workers - it just gets dumped into BS like stock buybacks. You can't ask for grace when you offer none.
- MisterBastahrd 5y ago
  Wages have been going up for restaurant staff, not down, because nobody wants such a high-stress, low-quality job. Offering lower starting wages will end up with reduced staff and burnout.
- Traster 5y ago
  The core line of logic "We can pay our workers less, because our workers are more desperate" never gets any better. It's one thing to say they're going to pay less because the business isn't viable at these levels of pay, but extending that to "so we're going to focus on who we can exploit" is where it crosses the line. Becuase if the reason you're cutting wages is that you can't afford them... well, let's start with that big fat juicy CEO bonus.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- ehnto 5y ago
  > It may be understood by the recipients that they need to cut costs wherever possible. Except executive compensation, I suppose. It's also not an isolated event, just another moment in a trend of big corporate entities pushing wages in only one direction, down. No matter how you word it, it's starting to look a lot like: "We need to lower wages because no one can afford anything anymore because no one is paying high enough wages".
hinkley 5y ago
Financial stress on the customers means also likely means smaller tips. With fewer customers, that also means fewer tips, and fewer hours. So the employees are fucked even if Applebees doesn't say, "Hey if you twist this knife handle a funny noise comes out. Here, you try it."
threatofrain 5y ago
The cited part of the analysis wasn't covering that. It was only looking at the employee conditions and wages.

jasonhansel 5y ago

It will also force employees to look for higher-paying jobs, potentially causing them to leave if Applebees doesn't raise its pay. Normally inflation is associated with higher wages, not lower ones.

gruez 5y ago
>It will also force employees to look for higher-paying jobs ...implying they weren't already doing so? I'm not sure about you, but I don't think applebees is the type of place you stick around for "the good work culture" or whatever.
- wahnfrieden 5y ago
  I think you overestimate the mobility of a lot of these people. For many it will push them out of work if the wages stop covering the costs
  - gruez 5y ago
    Shouldn't it be easier to look for new jobs if you have a financial buffer? If anything being more pinched => more time being stressed out and/or more time at work (trying to rack up OT) => less time/energy to spend looking for new jobs.
    - warent 5y ago
      For one reason or another (all of which we must be empathetic to) many people resist change even to their own benefit. I think all humans are guilty of this in some form or another to varying degrees. For some people, change in job / career is met with severe resistance. It takes a catastrophe for people to get going into finding something better.
      - xeromal 5y ago
        Yeah, there's probably a few aspects to that. * Fear of change has to drive a bit of it * Satisfaction: This is a personal reason of mine. I make a solid technology wage that probably rests somewhere in the middle or maybe low-middle. I could definitely find myself a 15-20% bump if I tried, but I am so damn happy with my employer that I really don't feel the need. As long as my current wage tracks inflation, I honestly would be ok with not making any more money. * Convenience
      - wahnfrieden 5y ago
        Extremely neoliberal perspective
        warent 5y ago
        Interesting, thank you for the insight
- MattGaiser 5y ago
  Plenty of people do not search for jobs unless under duress.
- Spooky23 5y ago
  People working at these places are highly dependent on transportation and hours. When I worked retail, we were in sales and were top of the food chain. The restaurant people were a notch over regular mall workers in pay, but had to deal with different hours. Many people work multiple jobs… one line cook I remember did prep work starting at 6am at one place, painted, and closed the mall restaurant. He couldnt flip jobs easily due to bus schedules.
  - Frost1x 5y ago
    People don't realize how expensive it is to be working poor if they've never been working poor. It's a difficult trap to escape. For some it may be their own doing getting there, for others it may be environmental factors that lead them there or some combination of the two. The fact is, it's difficult to find resources to escape and you're trapped in a difficult space where gathering momentum to make even small transitions could take years of time while barely staying afloat. This is the life of the precariat class.
ashtonkem 5y ago
In fact, high transit costs might make low paying jobs like Applebees completely untenable. Why take a job if the cost of getting there is higher than what they pay?
- Spooky23 5y ago
  Cash flow. Look at Uber… it wasn’t uncommon for drivers to pay Uber to work as comp was less than depreciation. They were basically working for free to cash out car equity.

crackercrews 5y ago

I agree they may need to cut their prices. How would this email have been received if it had said: We are facing headwinds and may need to cut prices To stay viable this means we need to cut costs One way to do this is offer lower starting wages. Though this wasn't viable in the recent past, it may be possible now. That's because our pool of workers are feeling pinched and may need to pick up extra jobs I understand he does not talk about the need to tighten the belt on prices in his email. But obviously all restaurants have been under pressure with COVID and inflation. It may be understood by the recipients that they need to cut costs wherever possible.

munk-a 5y ago
I think maybe workers would be receptive to this if it weren't for the fact that whenever there's plenty of cash going around it doesn't loosen the belts of workers - it just gets dumped into BS like stock buybacks. You can't ask for grace when you offer none.
MisterBastahrd 5y ago
Wages have been going up for restaurant staff, not down, because nobody wants such a high-stress, low-quality job. Offering lower starting wages will end up with reduced staff and burnout.
Traster 5y ago
The core line of logic "We can pay our workers less, because our workers are more desperate" never gets any better. It's one thing to say they're going to pay less because the business isn't viable at these levels of pay, but extending that to "so we're going to focus on who we can exploit" is where it crosses the line. Becuase if the reason you're cutting wages is that you can't afford them... well, let's start with that big fat juicy CEO bonus.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
ehnto 5y ago
> It may be understood by the recipients that they need to cut costs wherever possible. Except executive compensation, I suppose. It's also not an isolated event, just another moment in a trend of big corporate entities pushing wages in only one direction, down. No matter how you word it, it's starting to look a lot like: "We need to lower wages because no one can afford anything anymore because no one is paying high enough wages".

hinkley 5y ago

Financial stress on the customers means also likely means smaller tips. With fewer customers, that also means fewer tips, and fewer hours. So the employees are fucked even if Applebees doesn't say, "Hey if you twist this knife handle a funny noise comes out. Here, you try it."

threatofrain 5y ago

The cited part of the analysis wasn't covering that. It was only looking at the employee conditions and wages.