A short transcript excerpt from a YouTube video by Donald Burns about labor costs in the restaurant industry. The speakers compare hourly labor in the United States versus Australia; Donald Burns explicitly cites paying $16 an hour and the conversation pivots to differences in Australian labor costs.
$16 an hour.
In the United States, labor, especially hourly labor, is always something everyone complains about. Oh my God, Donald, you wouldn't be complaining. You wouldn't understand. I pay $16 an hour.
Let's talk about.
Labor in Australia.
Yeah. So a server.
Yep.
That is a casual. Because they all want to be casuals. Because then they can take they know it off if they want to. Right. As laws in Australia are pretty tight, I think on the weekends it starts around 38 plus 12% super. Which goes into what you call your 401 or whatever on a public holiday. Right. For the guy that stands in the coffee shop making the coffee. Now he's over 70 an hour. And so when you're paying that sort of money, you cannot afford anyone that's not an A player because they're out there. You just gotta find them, attract them, look after them, teaching, coach them, and then you will stick on. We haven't lost a staff member for I don't know how long.
If your restaurant only works because you work 80 hours a week, it doesn't work.
