Employee Health Insurance Unhealthy for Owners, Employees

San Francisco is one of the only cities, I believe, that has pass legislation making it mandatory for restaurant employers to pay for their employees health insurance. For the employer this is almost an insurmountable burden as the financial commitment is devastating. And although it may appear to be a God sent in the form of healthy- pennies-from-heaven for the employee, in reality the restaurant  employee is paying , dearly, for  their own insurance – one way or another. Let me give you an example of how this healthy gesture by the leaders 
of this city driven by the hospitality industry is sick.

My office is about a block away from a well-know restaurant section in the city. Tthe iconoclastic PAC Bell Park is only a few blocks away.

On game days you can barely move amongst the aficionados flocking to 
see the SF Giants , the ticket scalpers and  dot- com employees 
just trying to grab a quick bite between meeting marathons discussing 
development, launch and possible productivity.

On non game days getting a table in any of these sports minded culinary emporiums is easy. Too
easy.

On a recent visit to a well known Mexican eatery I was dismayed to find 
there was a twenty- minute wait for a table for five, in an all but 
empty dining room on a Wednesday in the middle of the lunch hour.

The fact that I had to wait didn't concern me as much as the message this sent to the other people waiting for a table.

After a short discussion with the host I was told that the restaurant 
only had two waiters on  and they were both busy so my party would have to wait.

After ten minutes passed I asked again about my table and was told it 
would be another 15 minutes. I eventually persuaded the host to get 
the manager to wait on us as we also had a pressing development 
meeting to get back to.

Now this may sound strange that a well know restaurant- that is usually always busy would not have adequate wait staff on the floor.

If you calculate the payroll- using the mandatory health insurance and 
living wage numbers in the equation it is more profitable  in the long run to forfeit the business in lieu of scheduling another person on a shift just in case the dining room doesn't do a full turn. A slow day under the San Francisco payroll policy cost more in payroll, if the restaurant is fully staffed than the owner can ever produce in profit.  

During these tumultuous times it is imperative to keep payroll to a minimum. Yet, to reduce it to the point of not being able to handle a small rush is sheer culinary lunacy. Unless your manager is willing to take tables. That by the way was the ultimate outcome of our luncheon experience. The manager and the waiter both eventually waited on the table. In hindsight, the service was adequate, the food was mediocre, but broadcasting a staff cutback certainly left a bad taste in the mouths of my guests.

We all know hat the business, for the most part, is built on smoke and mirrors. The key is to never let the public know what is going on in the back of the house, or in the accounting department.