One of the world’s toughest and most resilient chefs – who’s helped hundreds of restaurants on the brink of survival write their comeback stories – claims nothing could have prevented the consequences of California’s $20 minimum wage, but there is one solution.
“This is Robert Irvine predicting we’re going to lose about 20-plus percent of our small, mom-and-pop business because what California has actually done is going to enable other states to do the same thing,” the celebrity chef and host of “Restaurant: Impossible” told Fox News Digital.
“I think it is a broadband-spectrum problem that’s across the country, not just California,” he continued, “because now California has done it, has opened the gateways to other states to raise that minimum wage.”
Since the Golden State enacted its statewide minimum wage hike one week ago, Irvine told Digital that he and restaurant tech outfitter GRUBBRR have seen a 77% increase in service requests. Irvine is an investor in GRUBBRR and recently co-launched their “Restaurant Revamp” campaign to give in-need restaurants a digital makeover.
These tech upgrades, Irvine argues, could play a crucial role in preventing future restaurant closures or worker layoffs like the ones seen in lieu of California’s new law.
“I believe that everybody should be able to make a livable wage. And up until this point, it’s been tough. Restaurant workers have suffered. But it comes at a really bad time because the inflation is very high, food costs are very high,” Irvine started to explain.
“And the increase of wage plus the food cost is putting small, mom-and-pop operators out of business because they cannot afford $20 an hour, $27 an hour in some places,” he added. “Fast food chains, think of the McDonald’s and the Yum! Brands and all those kind of folks, are turning to technology to offset that human being.”
While Irvine doesn’t own any stakes in California-based restaurants, he is planning new tech-focused restaurants in other states and expanded on how it won’t take jobs away from U.S. workers. Instead, the technology can eliminate order errors or poor customer care experiences from restaurant servers and hosts.
“It actually saves me the labor in the long run, because I’ve taken that human being that would be doing that and putting [them] to a better use somewhere else. Not firing the person, I’m reallocating the labor to work in a better format to me,” Irvine said.
“I’m using that in my own restaurants. I’m putting a restaurant of the future together right now, which is technology-driven. So, is there a way to do it? Absolutely. Should people worry about jobs? Absolutely not.”
By the end of this year, Irvine predicted 44% of quick-service restaurants will have implemented technology in either the front or back of the house. For operators, it can reportedly promote menu upselling and increase the average check anywhere from 28% to 35%.
“So you’re actually making more money, which, in the long run, you can pay more money to your staff [and] keep them happy in the jobs that you want them to do,” Irvine pointed out, “and not wasting their time.”
For restaurateurs and business owners alike worried over whether California’s minimum wage law will spread and force more doors closed, Irvine encouraged them to lean into innovation.
“Technology is not going away. It’s only getting better. So I would say to those hesitant, you really must focus, figure out what your operation needs, and then find somebody like a GRUBBRR or a technology company that comes in and listens to what you need and what your vision of your business is,” he said.
“I’m a chef, I’m a cook, I make eggs. But there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years is: how do you use technology to the best advantage to give me a better bottom line?” Irvine noted. “I became a heavy investor because I believe it’s the future.”
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