In the article written by David Yaffe-Bellany in the New York Times, Hiring Is Very Hard for Restaurants These Days. Now They May Have to Fire.
One problem that every restaurant has is a high turnover rate it doesn’t help that it’s been a continuous issue and has become a now bigger problem for all owners in the industry. You may wonder what is the main reason for employers not being able to keep their employees, is it the drug epidemic, is it the I can’t find a babysitter excuse being used to many time, or is it that nobody wants to work in a stressful career field with low pay?
The truth may surprise you and frighten you in the ups and down that, the restaurant industry will see in the future.
The problem is Labor shortages and the U.S. crackdown on undocumented immigrants, this has left owners either firing people or face the consequences of doing nothing about it and having “constructive knowledge” meaning big trouble.
Yaffe-Bellany stated that across the country that restaurants were suffering from labor shortages. That it all began in March and April, when the Social Security Administration sent letters to business owners, notifying the name of employees that their SSN didn’t match on their tax forms. These document would be called the “no-match letters”, giving fear to the owners and undocumented employees.
Yaffe-Bellany quoted Carolyn Richmond an employment lawyer in the state of New York. About the fear restaurant owners have and the vast population of undocumented people in the workforce. He also stated that he followed two different owners that received these letters divided themselves in two-part. One that would soon fire their employees and second owner that would say nothing as if nothing was happening.
The article got more in-depth about how both groups sought help from lawyers and what legal actions would come of this if they chose to make a decision on handling the “no-match letter”. In the first group, many employees quit due to attracting attention from ICE and being raided. The owner would soon then fire employees as well as adopting an E-verify for new employees. The other owner in Manhattan decided not to tell any of her employees due to the fact that all her employees were undocumented. That if she had to fire anyone the business would be ruined.
The truth is that Yaffe-Bellany interview Mark Hinkle the agency’s acting press at the Social Security Administration where he stated that they did not plan on raiding anyone, they just want to make sure the names are spelled correctly or if data was entered incorrectly. If all the requirements were fixed and correct there was nothing to worry about if not the other departments like ICE would have an audit with the owners. What I found interesting and forgot was that the Trump administration was part of this movement and realized this was a bigger picture in the U.S. and not just in the industry.
Yaffe-Bellany then discussed the low unemployment and how the young that no longer fills those positions, and how oversaturated the market has been with restaurants. Many owners are not liking this push. It’s safe to safe that Chain restaurants have the highest rate of non-turnovers when hiring qualified candidates since they spend most of the money on E-verify programs and third party companies for doing background checks.
Overall I thought this article was great talking about the ongoing situation with undocumented employees and the choices many owners are choosing. I thought Yaffe- Bellany did a great example of getting multiple views from high education, the department of unemployment, owners, Social Security Administration, and provided a link of the raids happening in the U.S.
Being in the industry working with independent restaurants you hear this a lot from the owners but really never any of the choices and consequences they may have to make. I felt like I saw enough number and stats from this article to help me evaluate these issues and help my customers advance and find new ways of processing new candidates. Overall I give this article an A Yaffe-Bellany was not biased but gave an equal view from each side.
