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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Andy Bromage was a Seven Days staff writer from 2009-2012, and the news editor from 2012-2013.

114 replies on “Battle Lines Drawn in Skinny Pancake Livable Wage Controversy”

  1. I would like to ask Mr. Weinberger, Hoffer, the finance committee etal if they pay their nanny, lawn mower, newspaper delivery, pizza delivery baby sitter etc $17.71 an hour or does that just apply when spending my money?

  3. This same ordinance affects construction services contracts with the City too and also tries to influence what percentage of the contract must be performed by, or subcontracted to, women and other minorities. This ADDS considerable cost to those contracts as well yet no one fusses because it doesn’t result in a $20 sandwich, just the equivalent in over priced and over paid for construction services that are forced on the collective taxpayer rather than a duped individual.

  4. One thing that everyone is forgetting is that the location is in the AIRPORT. It’s not on Church Street or the Waterfront. Ridership is down at the airport and unless you are traveling, you aren’t going to be eating at the SP or any of the other kiosks in the airport. Also BTV isn’t like big hubs with constant traffic. The vast majority of the flights are in the early AM going out and late in the evening coming back. Not alot of traffic at noon or 2 in the afternoon. Also who ever heard of paying a dishwasher $17.00 a hour. That would be a great gig if you could get it!

  6. This political tension would more easily be resolved were we able to trust anyone involved. What we have here is a conversation about how to best extract money from us, and who gets to do it. The vaguest notion that what happens at this government mandated absolute control of the only monopoly source of food (would you blink were it water? air?) of this captive population is going to be anything resembling a fair fucking transaction has apparently long ago blown away in the wind.
    OK so here’s my idea for how to help with this supposedly difficult supposedly real tension we have here. With all this talk in the air of $20 sandwiches, why I think I’m going to just go to the kitchen and make a few sandwiches, hitch over to the airport and sell them! Ha. Ha ha.

  7. Follow-up: Benjy Adler posts a thoughful response. Among other things, he says the Burlington Free Press flat-out got it wrong that Bruegger’s Bagels and Hudson News had offers that included meeting the livable wage requirement. That, in and of itself, is news:
    http://skinnypancake.com/2012/…

  8. Mr. Burns: The plant’s first annual Fourth of July company picnic is this upcoming weekend.
    Homer Simpson: Woo-hoo!
    Mr. Burns: No, you misunderstand. The picnic is for me. You will all be spending our Day of Independence slaving away at my mansion under the hot summer sun, without pay, water, or gratitude.
    Homer Simpson: D’oh!
    Mr. Burns: Yes, duh-oh indeed.

  10. It’s ironic that they tout their locally sourced ingredients as a way of showing their support for VT farmers yet they can’t show that same support to their own employees by paying a livable wage. They have lost my respect.

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