Catering salaries | Chains in a better position than large restaurants

Salaries in restaurant kitchens have increased on average by 15% compared to 2019. However, employees in the kitchen of certain chains now earn as much and sometimes more than those in large restaurants, from which more is required, however. skills. Why ? Large restaurants have neither the same means nor the same profit margins, remind the specialists and restaurateurs interviewed.

Nathaelle Morissette
Press

Pierre-Marc Tremblay, owner and chairman of the board of directors of Pacini, says he has increased the salaries of the cooks of his restaurant owners by around 10% to 15% due to the labor shortage. With an hourly rate that starts at $ 15 for inexperienced applicants, some employees earn as much as $ 24 an hour, regardless of tip sharing.

“We have to respect the market, no matter who we are [comme restaurateur] », He maintains.

Regarding Normandin restaurants, the salary is around $ 15 or $ 16, but bonuses have been added for those who work in the evening or during the summer period. And employees are entitled to a group insurance plan, underlines Jean Julien, vice-president of sales and marketing for the company. McDonald’s is posting jobs with pay ranging from $ 15 to $ 17. According to the Association Restauration Québec (ARQ), the average salary of kitchen employees is currently $ 19.40.

Although the restaurant industry has been going through a difficult time since the start of the pandemic, chains have more leeway to make wage increases, according to Robert Laporte, professor of management at the Institute of Tourism and Tourism. Quebec hotel industry (ITHQ).

“It’s documented that franchises have better profit margins for all kinds of considerations in terms of standardization, staffing available to franchisees,” he explains. Franchisors offer tools, they have the human and financial resources to support franchisees. It makes it possible to have a business model that is much more efficient than the independent restaurateur, who, a bit like a balancing act, must affect operations, human resources management, financial management and lease management as much. . ”

Asked by Press at the beginning of the week about a job offer that provoked strong reactions – we were offering a salary of $ 13.50 for a cook position when we should have written “from $ 13.50” – Marc Beaudin, co-owner of Pied de cochon, assured that none of his employees were paid at minimum wage.

“There is not a person [en cuisine], once she tips the restaurant, which earns down $ 16, $ 17, $ 18, $ 19 an hour. [Mais] we do not have that margin to increase the salaries of our employees by 30%, 40%, 50%, ”he nevertheless specified.

READ The article Au Pied de Cochon gets manhandled for wages deemed too low.

Under these conditions, is it more profitable to work for a chain? “It would be unfortunate to tell people: go work for a franchisee, you will earn more, insists Mr. Laporte. It would be reductive to think like that because staff retention is not tied to salary. There is the contribution and the valuation, ”he believes.

Chef Danny St Pierre, owner of a restaurant in Saint-Lambert and Montreal, believes that the experience gained in an establishment weighs heavily in the balance. “The cook’s salary is not his only salary,” he says. A chain is already well framed because there are protocols. A restaurant where it’s more lousse, there are more risks, it is not the same game, it is not the same job that you learn and it is not the same CV that you will have at the end. ”

But shouldn’t a big table that asks its employees to have more skills to be able to work with luxury goods should not pay them more?

It seems not. In Danny St Pierre’s experience, already selling luxury goods for a restaurant is not profitable. And a young employee often lacks the experience to handle them properly, which can lead to losses. The conservator himself may decide to take on this kind of task to make sure the job is done right.

“The cook who is going to work the foie gras, the first ten times he will do it, there will be veins in it, it will take too long and he will heat it too much, he cites as a example to explain the losses of the restorer. And it is someone with experience who will go back and catch up with the job. There is an apprenticeship in there. If I serve foie gras at a restaurant, I’ll be the one to do it. ”

Sell ​​your salad

For his part, Marc-André Jetté, owner of the Hoogan et Beaufort restaurant, has decided to increase the salaries of his kitchen employees. “Young people these days no longer see this way of learning. [Ils veulent] a real salary and learn at the same time. Are they wrong? No. ”

“Yes, the chains can pay more than the rest of us,” he admits. They have no choice. We meet with enthusiasts, catering purists. ”

While several years ago, he says he found himself with a pile of CVs he did not know what to do with, today he admits that they are “worth a lot”.

“People come to my house and there I have to sell my salad,” he said. I’m in the interview and people tell me the salary they want to earn, without any embarrassment. ”

“I decided to put a lot of money into my kitchen team: I don’t want to lose it, they work so hard. Marc-André Jetté, however, remained discreet about the remuneration offered to his brigade.

And to afford this increase, the chef says it bluntly: he raised the prices on the menu. “I have not had any complaints from my clients,” he said.