Skinny Pancake owner Benjamin Adler says that if he paid a “livable wage” to employees working at his airport restaurants, he’d have to charge $20 for a sandwich. “No restaurant pays their dishwasher $17.71 an hour,” he tells Seven Days. “It’s not sustainable.”
Adler was reacting Tuesday to an avalanche of outrage prompted by a Burlington Free Press article, which reported that Burlington’s mayor and board of finance had approved the Skinny Pancake’s request for an unusual exemption from the city’s livable wage ordinance. Burlington’s ordinance requires that city employees and contractors receiving taxpayer funds pay workers a “livable” wage — presently $13.94 an hour, or $17.71 an hour if health insurance is not provided — unless they received a hardship exemption.
Adler lobbied for a hardship exemption and city officials approved one because Skinny Pancake says it would lose money on the airport venture otherwise. One reason for the special treatment: The Skinny Pancake and its sister restaurant, the Chubby Muffin, source almost all of their meat, cheese and vegetables from Vermont farmers and food producers. Adler estimates his restaurants spend $400,000 a year purchasing Vermont-grown foods — and will spend an additional $250,000 buying local food for the airport cafes.
The Free Press article also suggested — without saying explicitly — that Mayor Miro Weinberger’s personal relationship with Adler and his brother, Ted, both of whom supported the mayor’s campaign last spring, could have influenced the outcome.
Adler vigorously defended the exemption even as people who helped pass the livable wage ordinance back in 2001 warned that the move set a troubling precedent. Adler argues that the livable wage ordinance itself might need review. In spirit, he says he’s “all for” guaranteeing a livable wage to people working on the taxpayer’s dime. “But in practice, it’s setting the bar so high that even a company like mine can’t get near it. Is that the right bar to have set?” asks Adler, who pays himself “barely more” than livable wage standards. “Or is it too much money?”
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I say boycott them….this is criminal on the part of the mayor as well as the owners.
Whatever happened to the Federal FAA investigation of the Kiss Administration advertising and putting out bids for Airport Maintance contracts and then NOT awarding to the responsive low bidder and instead giving the work, and awarding the jobs instead, to the City of Burlington Department of Public Works at a higher cost to taxpayers and Airport users? If I remember correctly, DPW didn’t even submit bids on the various projects and were still awarded the contracts under the Kiss regime.
An Airport franchise is a license to print money. It’s not a free market. In granting this exemption City Hall has only reinforced the image of political patronage, of rigged competitions, favors and influence. It stinks. Think about it the next time you buy a Five dollar muffin at BTV.
As a business person, I agree. While I don’t necessarily believe liveable wage is the way to solve it, there has to be some recourse for employees. Restaurant work is exceedingly difficult, stressful, and underpaid. If the owners can’t make a go of it, that is their issue and should not be paid for by paying low wages to employees who are working their butts off in a restaurant kitchen.
My concerns with this issue are about fairness in a competitive bidding process.
Was the exclusion granted after the bid was awarded, or were Brueggers and
Hudson News afforded the opportunity to base their bids using a lower wage also?
Miro and the finance committee should answer that question, as well as address whether the other vendors at the airport are receiving exclusions. If they are not, there is not a level playing field for airport businesses.
Sourcing local products and claims about profitability are not valid reasons to grant an exclusion from meeting local wage ordinances. Granting exclusions based on
non-statutory and arbitrary criteria gives the appearance of impropriety. If the local wage ordinances are unreasonable, they should be changed.
The total difference of $4-5 per employee per hour between the wages required by ordinance and the wages they seek to pay should not make or break a $1.8 M/year operation, and if they do, the margins are too thin to be attributed to staff costs alone. With good management practices, a consistent quality product, and reliable
service, a $17/hour employee should pay for themselves many times over, particularly at a business that enjoys the competitive advantage of a captive market and a liquor license.
Will Skinny Pancake management pledge neutrality on any organizing drive by its workers at any of its location? Will the mayor commit to supporting, or at least respecting, restaurant workers’ right to collectively bargain?
“Adler and Weinberger both took issue with the suggestion that Skinny Pancake’s unusual treatment was the result of favoritism. Adler says he simply outbid the other food vendors, pledging to pay the city 24 cents per passenger served, or a guaranteed minimum of $145,000 a year.”
…And there it is, folks: In order to secure the bid that would generate the highest amount of revenue for the City, the City had to grant the contractor an exemption to its livable wage ordinance. All that stuff about local food sourcing or representing Burlington values to visitors is nice, but it’s not what sealed the deal. As Lyle Lovett sang, it’s the “MMMM-o-n-e-y.”
But after all this, I’m not sure I actually *like* the livable wage ordinance. Yes, I want all workers to be able to pay for their life expenses on their income, but the minute our city starts requiring it from its contractors, it sets us up for these types of controversies of perceived hypocrisy.
The solution’s “easy” (note the quotes): Get rid of the livable wage requirement. Explain that it necessarily leads to these kinds of unwinnable situations. Who among us could do this? How about the guy who just successfully convinced two-thirds of Burlington taxpayers to take on higher interest payments for their own good?
When I saw the headline I had the knee-jerk liberal response of “What a greedy b……..d.” But after reading the article, it seems sensible. Restaurants have a tiny profit margin. The inventory has a short shelf life and the sales volume is unpredictable. Adler and city officials did the math, and it doesn’t work. A livable wage law, with exemptions subject to detailed review, is progressive pragmatism at its finest.
I truly hope Weinberger is not subordinating the interests of the city to his personal relationships. If it is proven, not just suggested as in this article, I will have some choice words.
Looks like Weinberger and Adler would rather pay the Airport $145 thousand than pay the workers a livable wage. How much does Adler take home?
What did anyone really expect with the ordinance in the first place? Look, it’s all relative… if you pay someone 17-18 bucks an hour, you have to charge more… at some point it becomes ridiculous… like trying to sell a sandwhich for $20.
Burlington and the path that the progressives have put it on are idiotic. No surprises Hoffer was in on the livable wage writing. And, no surprise that Miro has continued with the shady going ons that his predecessors initiated.