This was my first reaction too, especially after the line about “figuring out how to pay him more without having him lose access to different low-income programs for which he currently qualifies.”
But they get into the actual wages below, and while it is absurd to me that servers are making almost double what the cooks are, what’s even more insane is that both of them are paid an absolute shitton by restaurant standards nationwide.
50k per year puts you at the top end of Cooks in the entire country. Hell, anywhere but SF, that is still solid middle class wages regardless of job, and in a field where customarily only the truly high end even bothers to pay more than minimum wage.
I would’ve donated a spare kidney to make that kind of money when I was still cooking. And the idea that that is still not enough to survive even rent should be a massive alarm bell that something is deeply fucked with your economy.
But they get into the actual wages below, and while it is absurd to me that servers are making almost double what the cooks are, what’s even more insane is that both of them are paid an absolute shitton by restaurant standards nationwide.
50k per year puts you at the top end of Cooks in the entire country. Hell, anywhere but SF, that is still solid middle class wages regardless of job, and in a field where customarily only the truly high end even bothers to pay more than minimum wage.
I would’ve donated a spare kidney to make that kind of money when I was still cooking. And the idea that that is still not enough to survive even rent should be a massive alarm bell that something is deeply fucked with your economy.