By Hadas Kuznits
KYW News Radio (PA), Oct 14, 2021
Kelly Maguire, shop lead at &pizza restaurant in Willow Grove, said being paid $15 an hour has changed her life for the better. ...
“Just being able to come into work — and that’s all you have to worry about, is just working and getting that job done instead of all the 50 other things that are at home,” she said.
Jennifer Berrier, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, hopes other businesses follow suit.
She visited the restaurant Thursday, calling for the state’s minimum wage to be raised from $7.25 an hour to $12, with a path in place to get to $15 an hour by 2027. ...
Michael Lastoria, CEO and founder of &pizza ... said a restaurant’s biggest expense is employee turnover, but since increasing wages, he said he hasn’t experienced a labor shortage or a loss of revenue. ...
“If we can keep a restaurant general manager in a restaurant for over a year, we will see anywhere from 3% to 5% revenue growth. For every 10% of the hourly workforce that we can keep in the restaurant for over a year, we see a 1% revenue growth.
“You are also spending significantly fewer dollars on the cost of recruiting and training, which we, on average, is roughly $5,000 to get someone up to speed to be able to produce efficiently. So there’s massive costs in lower wages and inherent turnover.” ...
Before &pizza, Maguire wasn’t being paid a living wage — which is what she believes is fueling the labor shortage. ...
Berrier said more than 1 million workers and their families in Pennsylvania would benefit from the raise to $12 an hour.
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