Philly restaurant workers: The pay is so-so
In sum, Philadelphia restaurant workers don't make as much as most of their counterparts in many other cities, according to PayScale. And if you want to clean up, move to San Francisco and tend bar.
It should be little surprise that restaurant work is stressful and demanding, with relatively low pay.
Especially if you're a cook.
PayScale Inc., which analyzes compensation in assorted industries, has just released results of a two-year study on restaurant workers' earnings in more than a dozen cities including Philadelphia.
About 15,000 waiters, cooks and bartenders were quizzed on their earnings - their base salaries (a minimum of $2.83 an hour in Pennsylvania) and tips, if any.
In sum, Philadelphia restaurant workers don't make as much as most of their counterparts in many other cities. And those interested in cleaning up should move to San Francisco and tend bar.
Cooks - who often sweat in hellish conditions and subject themselves to burns, cuts and verbal abuse from chefs - get the short end. Of the 12 cities providing meaningful data, Philadelphia's chefs and cooks reported bringing in on average $12.40 an hour. This is all salary, since Philadelphia cooks reported getting no tips. The cities reported in the survey ranged from $11.10 an hour in Houston to $13.80 an hour in Seattle. (The life of a cook? Read this.)
Waiters did a touch better. Of the 18 cities reporting on waiters' combined tips and salary, Philadelphia servers' $13.90 an hour was pretty much in the middle of the pack, given the wide range reported - $10.30 an hour in Detroit to $21.50 an hour in San Francisco.
Philadelphia bartenders did a bit better than cooks and waiters, but not on a national scale. Those surveyed reported receiving an average $15 an hour in salary and tips. Of the 13 cities totaling salary and tips, only Houston ($13.40 an hour) and San Antonio ($13.90) reported lower earnings. Bartenders in New York ($15.10 an hour, offset by a higher cost of living) did not fare much better. The top city for bartenders was San Francisco ($26.50 an hour in salary and tips - but also a high cost of living), significantly above Las Vegas ($22).
These are averages, of course. According to my own informal research, cooks' salaries seldom surpass $17 an hour while top waiters and bartenders in higher-end establishments pull in considerably more.
PayScale's wage figures seem to square with the policy of Girard Brasserie in Fishtown, the new restaurant that discourages tipping by paying $13-a-hour salaries and benefits.