Anyone working in a restaurant would probably say it’s one of the most tiring jobs they’ve ever experienced. Not to mention the everyday dilemma the workers get from rude and disrespectful customers. Despite the challenges offered by this type of job, it still remains one of the most underpaid jobs.

Unfortunately, most restaurants in the U.S. transfers the cost of labor to customers in the form of tips. And as we all know, restaurant employees depend on tips for extra take-home cash. The worst thing above all these is that there are some restaurants where all the tips still go into the owner’s pockets.

While most restaurants only care about profit, this one decided to share it.

A restaurant in San Francisco, Zazie, went “tip free” in 2015 and they’ve been this way since then. Instead, they offered all their workers a living wage with full benefits and even shared with everyone a chunk of the restaurant’s profits.

The mind behind this idea was the establishment’s second owner, Jennifer Piallat. For her to get the restaurant going while sustaining the profit-sharing idea, Piallat needed to increase the prices of every item on their menu by 20%.

After doing such bold movements, they expected a huge pushback from their customers, however, their patrons were happy to embrace the changes.

“So far we haven’t had any complaints,” Piallat said. “In fact, one customer said she expected sticker shock, but that the menu still looks reasonable.”

If the customers were happy with the business strategy, more so were the employees.

When the profit-sharing plan was implemented, Zazie employees started earning $15 to $20 per hour.

Summing it up, Piallat’s employees received a 3% to 7% pay raise, while the people working at the back-of-the-house received a jaw-dropping 35% increase! Right now, the entire crew is making $30 to $65 per hour.

Not only that because 25% of each item on the menu is being given directly to the workers as a revenue share.

“Our staff are treated like adults, with ‘real jobs,’” explained by the Zazie’s owner, Piallat. “Our labor costs are much higher than most restaurants, but our food cost/loss is much lower, so our profits end up higher.”

“More mature, long-term staff waste less food, make less mistakes, are less likely to steal, and can handle bigger sections.”

A selfless act.

Piallat also offers both her full-time and part-time employees paid sick and vacation leaves. On top of that are fully funded health and dental insurance, paid maternity or paternity leave, and a 401(k) with a four percent employer match.

“The only person losing money is me,” she jokingly said. “My accountant doesn’t like it, but I didn’t want to risk anyone being dissatisfied.”

Piallat also shares a spreadsheet of what everyone makes because she believes the idea wouldn’t make sense if she’s not going to be transparent, particularly with the numbers that they’re making.

“Everyone sees what everyone else makes. There’s no shadiness about it,” she said.

Over the years of using the profit-sharing idea, Zazie’s loyal employees became its part-owners. Piallat sold Zazie to one of its servers, its executive chef, and its general manager. Right now, she owns 25% of the business.

“I always knew I wanted to sell to my staff. I couldn’t imagine putting 17 years into building this community to have some stranger come along and treat them like disposable idiots. The hard part was choosing who to sell it to…I doubt they thought they’d ever own the place,” Piallat said.

Looks like Zazie’s new owners don’t plan on stopping the “no-tipping” policy anytime soon.

During the pandemic when businesses from different industries were forced to shut down, Zazie remained strong and survived amid the global health crisis.

Apart from establishments closing down, those who survived along with Zazie still experienced manpower shortages and limited operating hours. The massive lay-off of employees also forced them to change career paths.

For the past five years, only a couple of employees left Zazie. Some of them changed cities and switch careers, no one among them left the restaurant and worked at another one.

Hopefully, this story reaches more people, particularly restaurant owners. We hope that they’d follow in the initiative from Zazie and its kindhearted owners.

Learn how profit-sharing works by watching the clip below.

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Source: Positive Outlooks, Facebook