The Restaurant Doctor

In my EHC of January 28, the following question was raised:

LET THEM EAT CAKE
Jerry Mistretta of Jerry's Cajun Cafe <jerry@pcola.gulf.net> writes
I was wondering what other restaurants do regarding "employee meals"? We are an independent restaurant with about 50 employees and have given our staff incentives with free meals or discounted prices for their meals. We have had lots of problems in this area and I am curious as to what other restaurants do. I would love to hear some comments or policies currently used in this situation. What is the common practice in the industry? All ideas will be deeply appreciated.

Here are the replies:

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In response to your question, the way we do it at Joe's Stone Crab is have a set menu for the month for the employees meals. Secondly, we take imput from all workers to what should be served. Thirdly, put some time into this. Come up with nice presentations. Make your workers feel special. All I can say is that you are never going to satisfy everybody, but all you can do is do the best job that you can. I hope this information is beneficial to you. -- Aaron Michaels

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We offer crew members 50% off the tab when on duty (before or after shift, during lunch break) and 25% off the tab for them and (up to 7) friends at any of our [chain] restaurants. (name and company withheld by request)

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I own and operate two restaurants in Mid-Michigan. I have heard of restaurants giving $1.00 off an entree or half price, etc. I have a very liberal meal policy for my employees. In our employee handbook I highlight this policy as an employee benefit. Beverages are available to employees at no change while they are working. This includes pop and coffee only. If an employee works a shift of four hours or more, I will provide them with a meal (selected menu items) at no charge. Depending on which state you do business in you must be careful how you provide employee meals because the meals could be subject to a Use Tax. -- Mike Ortman

We operate 3 fast food Mexican eating establishments. We grant 35% discount to employees, spouses and children, both on & off work. They may feed whomever they wish as long as they are paying for it and they do not sell or directly trade for goods or services. They do not pay cash and it all of the discounted tickets are deducted from their checks.

We have 70 employees and have approx. 500 charge tickets per week. Most would consider it a hassle (to collect, account for, sort, tally and deduct), but we started this 30 years ago when we had 1 unit and 6 employees and have just grown with it. It's become part of the system and the employees seem to enjoy and appreciate.

Soft drinks, iced tea and coffee are free while on the clock as long as they use plastic lidded mugs that we provide. If it goes in a paper cup, they pay (w/ discount).

The main reason that we do not give "free" meals is that the state of New Mexico wants their gross receipts tax (similar to sales tax) on the food consumed by employees, and this seemed to be a way to account properly. They 35% was arrived at by having the employees pay for the food and labor to fix it, and that is approx. 65% of the menu price. -- Tom Martin

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