Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray w BZ Costs Radio.
Speaker 2: All Right, So, as we rolled towards the election on
Speaker 2: November fifth, not only the presidential election, but the state
Speaker 2: elections and maybe some local elections, we are going to
Speaker 2: periodically be looking at some of the ballot questions. We
Speaker 2: looked at one of the ballot questions that deal with
Speaker 2: the MCAST requirements, graduation requirement with Matt Hills on Tuesday night,
Speaker 2: Tuesday evening during the nine o'clock hour. Matt is the
Speaker 2: vice chair of the Massachusetts Secondary and Elementary Education Department. Tonight,
Speaker 2: we're going to take a look at another ballot question.
Speaker 2: This is ballid question five, and this is one that
Speaker 2: is quite confusing, and to clarify some of that confusion,
Speaker 2: we have invited Steve Clark, the President and CEO of
Speaker 2: the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, to join us. I'll also tell
Speaker 2: you that we tried to get a representative of another
Speaker 2: group that is on the opposite side of this issue,
Speaker 2: which seems to be a California based group. So first
Speaker 2: of all, Steve, welcome to you. Thank you for joining
Speaker 2: us tonight on Night Side. Thank you. How are you tonight? Dan?
Speaker 3: Thank you very much for having me. How are we doing?
Speaker 2: We're doing fine. Now can you give me my understanding?
Speaker 2: Is that the group that is that is in favor
Speaker 2: of this question, and I don't expect you know you
Speaker 2: to necessarily to us what they're saying, as you're opposed
Speaker 2: to it. Are they a local group or a group
Speaker 2: from out of state? And is there we we had
Speaker 2: a tough time trying to find anyone to join us,
Speaker 2: join you tonight to discuss the topic here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: What's what's the story there?
Speaker 3: So this is an organization that came out of California.
Speaker 3: They have filed this question in massachuf this legislative league
Speaker 3: for the last five legislative sessions, for the last ten years.
Speaker 3: And they've also filed this similar type of legislation in
Speaker 3: sixteen states across the country this year, all of which
Speaker 3: have not adopted this provision. So after not having legislative success,
Speaker 3: they paid about a million dollars to get on the
Speaker 3: ballot for this year.
Speaker 4: And here we are. We are.
Speaker 3: We have balid Question five, which will fundamentally change the
Speaker 3: way full service restaurants operate. They want to change the
Speaker 3: way service and bartenders get paid. And we are we're
Speaker 3: vehemently opposed.
Speaker 2: Okay, we're gon we're gonna We're gonna break it down
Speaker 2: for sure. But I just wanted to emphasize to my
Speaker 2: audience that we have reached out. My producer, Marita aka
Speaker 2: Lady Lightning, she gets to people pretty pretty well. She
Speaker 2: has a note here. The Yes campaign has not responded
Speaker 2: to our request, our request to join the conversation tonight,
Speaker 2: So let's let's try to Whenever we deal with numbers,
Speaker 2: I found out on on radio it's very difficult to
Speaker 2: deal with numbers. So let's take the situation now in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: If you happen to be working as somebody who's on
Speaker 2: a weight staff, meaning I assume you're somebody who's interacting,
Speaker 2: and if my definition is wrong or if the definition
Speaker 2: needs to be increased or lied more limited, it's the
Speaker 2: waiter waitress that comes up, approaches you at the table
Speaker 2: and says, good evening, welcome to such and such. You
Speaker 2: know I'm going to be a wait person tonight. That's
Speaker 2: what we're Those are the waiters and bartenders. I assume also.
Speaker 3: People who exactly the people at the front of the
Speaker 3: house of the restaurants that are providing the great service
Speaker 3: and the great hospitality that we've come to expect in
Speaker 3: restaurants across Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: Okay, so those folks, their minimum wage is six dollars
Speaker 2: and twenty five cents. I assume there's nothing that would
Speaker 2: stop a business owner from paying a waiter or a waitress,
Speaker 2: or a bartender who does a particularly good job, maybe
Speaker 2: even some particularly bartenders that that people go to the
Speaker 2: bar to interact with the bartender. They can get more
Speaker 2: money if the if the owner wants to pay the
Speaker 2: more money. Correct But the minimum is six twenty five, So.
Speaker 3: A couple of corrections, so it's actually six seventy five
Speaker 3: and went up about.
Speaker 4: A year ago.
Speaker 3: So six seventy five is the base wage, and that
Speaker 3: assumes that at least eight dollars and twenty five cents
Speaker 3: will be made in tips. But the minimum wage is
Speaker 3: actually fifteen. So when a server comes into the bar
Speaker 3: restaurant and checks in, whether they serve one guest or
Speaker 3: one hundred guests, they're guaranteed fifteen dollars an hour through
Speaker 3: some combination of the hourly wage and the tips. The
Speaker 3: reality is far more than fifteen dollars. We can get
Speaker 3: into that, but that's not what the law.
Speaker 2: I think what you're saying is that unless you work
Speaker 2: in the restaurant which is overstaffed and and there's very
Speaker 2: few people coming in the door, it's tough not to
Speaker 2: make fifteen dollars an hour as as a waiter or
Speaker 2: a waitress or a bartender. I think that's what you're applying,
Speaker 2: am I.
Speaker 3: Correct, Absolutely, it's tough not to make twenty two dollars
Speaker 3: an hour. But yes, the law is you are required
Speaker 3: fifteen dollars per hour regardless of when you work. So, yes,
Speaker 3: there is a a so called tip wage, and that
Speaker 3: just merely allows the restaurant owner to employ more people
Speaker 3: to provide the full service that comes along in a
Speaker 3: full service restaurant.
Speaker 2: So let's assume let's assume some waiter or waitress gets
Speaker 2: let's say they work a four hour ship shift. We'll
Speaker 2: keep it simple, and let's assume that they get sixty
Speaker 2: bucks in tips. Okay, roughly, we'll make it easy. So
Speaker 2: they got fifteen dollars in tips. They will also be
Speaker 2: paid the six dollars and seventy five cents.
Speaker 3: Or exactly, so they're making twenty one seventy five an hour.
Speaker 2: Okay, So okay, Now, what happens if the waiter or
Speaker 2: waitress is somehow disingenuous and puts some of the tips
Speaker 2: in one pocket and some of the tips in the other.
Speaker 2: How does a restaurant own a control? You know, I'm
Speaker 2: not saying any waitress or waitress that I have ever
Speaker 2: met would do such a thing, but as a hypersonic question,
Speaker 2: of course, it's a hypothetical question. How does the owner
Speaker 2: of the restaurant, who could only have his his or
Speaker 2: her eyes in so many places at any given time,
Speaker 2: how do they know that that?
Speaker 3: So the vast majority of restaurants have are our seventy
Speaker 3: eighty ninety percent credit card, so it's kind of hard
Speaker 3: to hide the cash tips the way people used to
Speaker 3: hide them in the in the seventies and eighties and
Speaker 3: even the nineties. You know, most transactions are happening on
Speaker 3: a credit card, so you're only really seeing ten to
Speaker 3: fifteen percent of all transactions in a given shift our cash.
Speaker 3: And so it's actually much easy here to track the
Speaker 3: hours worked and the tips that have come in than
Speaker 3: it was, you know, ten, fifteen, twenty years ago.
Speaker 2: So is that done. I've never worked as a waiter,
Speaker 2: never worked as a waiter, a waitress never worked as
Speaker 2: a waitstaff person. Let's assume that at this day and age,
Speaker 2: my wife and I go out to dinners one hundred dollars.
Speaker 2: I'll put twenty percent of the on the credit card.
Speaker 2: So does the house then understand? Okay, this twenty dollars
Speaker 2: is going to be credited to the waiter a waitress
Speaker 2: that serves that table.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, absolutely. And if there's severe penalties, the severe
Speaker 3: penalties both in not paying a serve of the full
Speaker 3: minimum wage. We have triple damages in Massachusetts. So that's
Speaker 3: a serious wage violation, a right exactly. And then also
Speaker 3: the tips. There's a very strict lawge Massachusetts of who
Speaker 3: can share in tips. The tips can only go to
Speaker 3: employee that's provided a direct service to the consumer.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's going to get into this this issue as well. Okay,
Speaker 2: so I think Steve set the stage. Uh, if there
Speaker 2: are people who are wait staff people and want to
Speaker 2: chime in, you would be most affected by this piece
Speaker 2: of legislation. I'm sure there are some arguments on the
Speaker 2: other side. We'll try to get to those as well.
Speaker 2: Six one seven, two four ten thirty six one seven nine,
Speaker 2: ten thirty My name is Dan Ray. This is night Side.
Speaker 2: Let's get back at our conversation right after this very
Speaker 2: quick break.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the window world
Speaker 1: to night Side Studios. I'm WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: My guess it's Steve Clark, President and CEO of the
Speaker 2: Massachusetts Restaurant Association. So Steve, give you a chance now
Speaker 2: since we've kind of laid out the way it all works.
Speaker 2: Right now, what is the problem with this ballot question?
Speaker 2: You guys are opposed to it. I believe that there's
Speaker 2: a pretty good amount of waiters and waitresses, weight staff
Speaker 2: people also who are opposed to this. What what is
Speaker 2: it going to do that it's going to disrupt circumstances,
Speaker 2: and why is it a bad idea?
Speaker 3: So the very first thing the mass Restaurant Association did
Speaker 3: was poll servers, the very servers and bar centers that
Speaker 3: were going to be impacted by this question, and we
Speaker 3: actually put the language of the ballot before them and
Speaker 3: said what do you think about this? And then overwhelming
Speaker 3: majority came back and said, we don't want this. This
Speaker 3: is going to impact my earnings. Ninety percent of the
Speaker 3: respondents came back and said this is a bad idea.
Speaker 3: Eighty eight percent think that they have to share their
Speaker 3: tips with other employees that don't provide direct service, they're
Speaker 3: going to make less money. And the proponents never asked
Speaker 3: any of the servers in Massachusetts if they wanted this.
Speaker 3: A very similar bill was just passed in Washington, DC,
Speaker 3: and it's been a disaster for the restaurant industry down there.
Speaker 3: Ten percent of the full service jobs are gone in
Speaker 3: less than a year. Ninety six percent of restaurants have
Speaker 3: raised prices. And what we're really seeing is the implementation
Speaker 3: of service charges. I'm not lying. Someone just texted me
Speaker 3: a bill from Washington, DC and it says twenty percent
Speaker 3: service charge. You don't need to tip. Well, the service
Speaker 3: charge belongs to the restaurant owner to dictate where that
Speaker 3: gets spent. So that's a loss of income for the servers.
Speaker 3: So we've had one thousand servers go to our website
Speaker 3: and sign up and join our petition and join our
Speaker 3: campaign and more importantly, and I think what shows the
Speaker 3: true nature of this campaign is almost one hundred servers
Speaker 3: and bartenders have contributed financially to the null on five campaign.
Speaker 3: They've reached into their hard earned dollars and contributed five
Speaker 3: to ten fifteen dollars. The proponents of this question have
Speaker 3: not one server or bartender from Massachusetts that has even
Speaker 3: contributed to this campaign at all. So I think it
Speaker 3: speaks pretty clear that the service and bartenders don't want
Speaker 3: it because they're going to see a direct loss in
Speaker 3: tips or in jobs.
Speaker 2: So the impact on the current servers under the current circumstances,
Speaker 2: economic circumstances. Uh, if if they make one hundred dollars
Speaker 2: in tip some night by waiting on customers, waiting tables,
Speaker 2: serving tables, that money is credited to them, uh, they
Speaker 2: they do not have to share that money with the
Speaker 2: cooks or the bottle washers or any of the back
Speaker 2: of the house people.
Speaker 3: Right exactly, exactly, Okay.
Speaker 2: Uh so so what is this California group attempting to
Speaker 2: do here? Again, we had a tough time tracking any
Speaker 2: of them down, any any representative, and my producer is
Speaker 2: very good at getting people to join us. What what
Speaker 2: is what is their goal here? Who are the if
Speaker 2: if the waiters and waitresses aren't thrilled with this? And
Speaker 2: I've seen some uh some television ads I'm not sure
Speaker 2: if they're your ads or not, which have have shown
Speaker 2: people who were you surfers who was saying they didn't
Speaker 2: like it? What is the potential argument? Again, there's no
Speaker 2: one on the other side to make the argument. What
Speaker 2: is the potential argument that they are making two people
Speaker 2: to get in Massachusetts to support this this.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't usually want to tell the people that
Speaker 3: have endorsed a yes, but the Democratic Socialists of Massachusetts
Speaker 3: Boston Chapter have endorsed the yes on this question. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so you know they they they're they're they're this organization.
Speaker 2: How about like the Young the Young Socialist League.
Speaker 3: You know, they're probably lining up next, they might endorse tomorrow.
Speaker 3: It's it's really rooted in a in a desire to
Speaker 3: pay everyone in the restaurant the same wage and regardless
Speaker 3: of how hard you've worked, regardless of how how hard
Speaker 3: you're going to work, regardless of your skill set. And
Speaker 3: that's what makes the restaurant industry great. It's a it's
Speaker 3: an opportunity to have unlimited earnings. You can go in
Speaker 3: and providing credible service to a guest and making credible
Speaker 3: earnings in limited hours. So they really want to get
Speaker 3: away from tipping and they want to pay everybody one
Speaker 3: wage their organization is called one Fair Wage. I don't
Speaker 3: use that name very frequently, but it's really one flat wage.
Speaker 3: They want to pay everybody the same.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's always interesting when you hear a group like that.
Speaker 2: What do you mean by by fair fair to whom? Whatever?
Speaker 2: I don't know. Look, if there are some people who
Speaker 2: work in the service industry who are out there and
Speaker 2: would like to chime in on whatever side of this question. Uh,
Speaker 2: there was a poll that was done recently by my
Speaker 2: friend Dave Paleologus of Suffolk University, and it was in
Speaker 2: the Boston Globe a couple of days ago. And if
Speaker 2: I recall, it's one of those questions, it's it's the
Speaker 2: last questions question number five. And and you guys are
Speaker 2: advocating for a no vote.
Speaker 3: Obviously, we want to know. We want no changes to
Speaker 3: the existing law nor the tip pulling law. That we
Speaker 3: just want the We want a lot to stay the same.
Speaker 2: Okay. So, but what this law would do is it
Speaker 2: would mandate tip pooling.
Speaker 4: Uh So it wouldn't. It wouldn't.
Speaker 3: It wouldn't mandate tip pooling. It would just it would
Speaker 3: allow the restaurant owner to mandate tip pooling. So if
Speaker 3: the restaurant owner decided they could now move the tips
Speaker 3: however they seem fit, so a manager would never be
Speaker 3: able to collect the tips. I think that's pretty clear
Speaker 3: in the law. But the if they wanted to share
Speaker 3: tips with the back of the house, with the host,
Speaker 3: maybe with the social media manager, maybe with the accountants,
Speaker 3: maybe with the person that cleans the restaurant at night,
Speaker 3: there's no restrictions on where those tips can go. And
Speaker 3: I think that's truly the server and bartender opposition is
Speaker 3: they're harder and tips are now being disseminated as wages
Speaker 3: to other employees throughout the restaurant enterprise.
Speaker 2: Right, and what this would do also, I think it
Speaker 2: will have an immediate impact that the minimum wage which
Speaker 2: the servers are being paid above and beyond their tips,
Speaker 2: would go to nine dollars and nine dollars and sixty
Speaker 2: cents year one on January first, year two would bump
Speaker 2: up to ten ninety five year three. January first, twenty
Speaker 2: six would be twelve thirty eight. It would eventually get
Speaker 2: up to fifteen dollars by January first of twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 3: Right, So think about so Dan, think about a small
Speaker 3: restaurant across Massachusetts, in any town, and just the labor
Speaker 3: cost that's going to go up in year one. Now,
Speaker 3: most full service restaurants, two thirds of the employees at
Speaker 3: the restaurant are tipped employees. So it's the highest percentage
Speaker 3: of staff that you have in your restaurant. If that
Speaker 3: labor cost goes up from the six seventy five right
Speaker 3: now to the nine thirty on January first, as almost
Speaker 3: three dollars per tipped employee hour, So one employee working
Speaker 3: forty hours a week, that's one hundred and twenty dollars
Speaker 3: business costs. Multiply that out by every server in every week.
Speaker 3: That's an insane increase in a for the restaurant industry
Speaker 3: that operates on a three to five percent margin.
Speaker 2: It's not sole that's going to that's going to increase
Speaker 2: the costs that the restaurant will have to charge customers exactly.
Speaker 3: So they have to make up that price somehow. They're
Speaker 3: either going to increase the cost or they're going to
Speaker 3: put a service charge on because there's only one way
Speaker 3: to generate money in a restaurant, and that's the product
Speaker 3: on the menu price for the product.
Speaker 2: So you're you're convinced that well, the poll that it
Speaker 2: just was alluding to you, you were no vote was prevailing,
Speaker 2: but there was still forty percent of the people who
Speaker 2: if I recall correctly, thirty nine percent that were saying yes.
Speaker 4: Because it sounds good.
Speaker 3: Everyone wants to take care of their server and their bartenders, Like, yeah,
Speaker 3: of course, I think this helps servis and bartenders. But
Speaker 3: then when they actually asked their bartender and their server,
Speaker 3: they're like, wait a minute, this isn't going to help me.
Speaker 3: And so when the proponents first filed this question earlier
Speaker 3: this year, they were touting fifty eight percent support. So
Speaker 3: their support has been crumbling in eroding, and the Boston
Speaker 3: Globe pole showed that it was less than forty percent.
Speaker 3: So people are learning, and I think when they hear
Speaker 3: more from the services and bartenders, they hear from the
Speaker 3: local restaurant owners, they hear from the coalition of mayors
Speaker 3: that are on both sides of the aisle that have
Speaker 3: come out and posed the house chair aways and means.
Speaker 3: Aaron Michelwitz came out today.
Speaker 2: I saw that by the way, that was that was
Speaker 2: an interesting, you know, interesting that he would weigh in
Speaker 2: on it. Of course, he represents the district. A part
Speaker 2: of his district is the North End, which is repleat
Speaker 2: with restaurants, great Italian restaurants. I should I should mention,
Speaker 2: but yes, so he very well might be influenced by
Speaker 2: by that constituency.
Speaker 3: But still obviously he also he had there was there
Speaker 3: was three servers that came and spoke and said that
Speaker 3: they didn't want this. So yes, he has a he
Speaker 3: has a vibrant restaurant district, but he also has a
Speaker 3: lot of vibrant restaurant employees from there.
Speaker 2: Have any of the state elected officials, the governor, either
Speaker 2: of our senators are six constitutional offices, which of course
Speaker 2: one of which would be the governor, of governor, lieutenant governor,
Speaker 2: Attorney general, Secretary of state, auditor, state treasurer. Have any
Speaker 2: of them come out with endorsements one way or the other.
Speaker 3: No, they've They've all remained neutral thus far, okay, and
Speaker 3: which I think tells you, which I think speaks volumes
Speaker 3: that you know, normally when they when you talk about
Speaker 3: a minimum wage discussion, most of our elected officials come
Speaker 3: on board and say, yes, a good idea. So I
Speaker 3: think their silence speaks volumes that they don't believe this
Speaker 3: is a good idea. And then to go one step further,
Speaker 3: the hospitality union is opposed to this. Well, is neutral
Speaker 3: on this question because they don't like the tip sharing
Speaker 3: aspect of it. So it's not often that the hospitality
Speaker 3: union and the business owners agree on the same thing.
Speaker 3: Evidence of what's going on in the city recently, but
Speaker 3: they are not in favor of this ballot question.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if perhaps the two issues spends pet been split,
Speaker 2: the one fair share group might have at least had
Speaker 2: a hope of getting the first question, but certainly not
Speaker 2: the tip sharing question. It's very interesting. Have they spent
Speaker 2: this group you said, has spent a million dollars on
Speaker 2: the ballot. Have they been spending a lot of advertising?
Speaker 3: To my knowledge, there hasn't been much advertising. Mostly they
Speaker 3: spent a lot of their money to get on the ballot.
Speaker 3: They did make reference in a Boston Globe article a
Speaker 3: few months ago that they had a two million dollar
Speaker 3: anonymous donation. Now, Massachusetts law prohibits anonymous donations. You have
Speaker 3: to disclose what you spend. But they did say in
Speaker 3: a Boston Globe atom article that they had an anonymous donation.
Speaker 3: So we're we're waiting for them to spend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, any any way possible that the that donor's last
Speaker 2: name is Soros.
Speaker 3: You know there, it may be. There's a lot of
Speaker 3: funding that happened in California that makes its way into politics,
Speaker 3: politics and other states.
Speaker 2: So yeah, no doubt, no doubt. All right, Steve, let's
Speaker 2: take a break. I'd like to hear from people who
Speaker 2: were affected by this, So give us a call at
Speaker 2: six one seven four ten thirty. Uh, if you have
Speaker 2: a different point of view, you're more than welcome, no
Speaker 2: doubt about that. Or six one seven nine, come on,
Speaker 2: give us a l particularly if you if you have
Speaker 2: some relationship to the industry, because when when I hear
Speaker 2: that both the owners, the restaurant owners and the employees
Speaker 2: are both opposed to this, or I'm sure we can
Speaker 2: find exceptions. If there are some out there who take
Speaker 2: it a different way, coming up with a different take,
Speaker 2: we'd love to hear from you. Six one seven two
Speaker 2: five four ten thirty. Got one line, two lines open
Speaker 2: there and six one seven nine three one ten thirty.
Speaker 2: Oh those lines filled? Do you want to call it now?
Speaker 2: Six one seven nine three one ten thirty. We'll be
Speaker 2: back on nightside right after.
Speaker 1: This It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, my guest is Steve Clark. He is the
Speaker 2: president and CEO of the mass Restaurant Association, and we're
Speaker 2: talking about Massachusetts ballot Question five that proposes giving tipped
Speaker 2: workers an increase uh in their base wage beginning next
Speaker 2: January and continuing for five years until it reaches a
Speaker 2: base wage of fifteen dollars an hour. That base wage,
Speaker 2: it's actually well twenty five, twenty six, twenty seven, twenty eight,
Speaker 2: twenty nine. It would be twenty twenty nine that they
Speaker 2: would reach the fifteen dollars an hour plateau. But the
Speaker 2: Restaurant Association is opposed to it, and apparently a lot
Speaker 2: of restaurant workers, if not a vast majority of restaurant workers,
Speaker 2: were opposed to it because it would also include the
Speaker 2: obligation for wait staff to pull the wages that they
Speaker 2: earned its tips with folks in what they call the
Speaker 2: back of the house, cooks and clean up people. And
Speaker 2: so this seems to me to be a question that
Speaker 2: is not likely to succeed, but it's one it's important
Speaker 2: to talk about. So let's get to phone calls and
Speaker 2: see what would you have to say, those of you
Speaker 2: who happen to be in the industry love to get
Speaker 2: your perspective. We did try to reach out today to
Speaker 2: the proponents of this group, the Yes Campaign, but they
Speaker 2: did not respond to our request to participate tonight. And
Speaker 2: apparently there are groups that is based in California and
Speaker 2: puts this type of ballid question on ballats, not only
Speaker 2: here in Massachusetts, but elsewhere as well. So let's start
Speaker 2: it off with Joe and Gloucester. Joe, you were first
Speaker 2: tonight with Steve Clark, the president and CEO of the
Speaker 2: Massachusetts Restaurant Association.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, Joe, Yeah. I thought it'd be interesting for
Speaker 4: Steve to speak to where this question had actually I
Speaker 4: don't know if it was the same exact question that
Speaker 4: had passed, but up in the town up in Maine,
Speaker 4: and the results that kind of followed with that.
Speaker 2: Are you familiar with what Joe's I.
Speaker 3: Do feel a very A similar proposal was passed in Portland,
Speaker 3: Maine in twenty sixteen. A couple of months after it
Speaker 3: went into effect, the servers were seeing an actual loss
Speaker 3: in their earnings, and they went and rallied to city
Speaker 3: Hall and they got the law reversed. So that's a
Speaker 3: sign of where a municipality tried this and it didn't work,
Speaker 3: and the service successfully lobbied their elected officials and they
Speaker 3: repealed it.
Speaker 2: So that probably wasn't a ballot question. It probably was
Speaker 2: something that passed by their city council in mayor, so
Speaker 2: easy to turn that around if this one were to
Speaker 2: pass as a ballot question. It's tough to turn balot
Speaker 2: questions around in Massachusetts. I hope the people who are
Speaker 2: voting on this realized that.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, the legislature generally defers to the to the to
Speaker 3: the voting public on a ballot question. I believe it
Speaker 3: was a city referendum. It wasn't a statewide referendum. I
Speaker 3: think it was just a City of Portland referendum.
Speaker 2: City ordinance or a city regulation. They made a mistake,
Speaker 2: they turned it around. Joe. Are you involved in the
Speaker 2: industry at all, Joe.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes we are.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Turner seat foods, which one turn to seafoods Turner Seafoods.
Speaker 4: Yes. So we have locations, we have a couple of
Speaker 4: different locations. But you know, our concern on this, and
Speaker 4: we've shared this with Steve is is people walking into
Speaker 4: the ballot booth that just aren't educated on it. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and you know, I think you know, for many people,
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, they they think it's it's it's
Speaker 4: only fair if someone's going to be making if someone's
Speaker 4: making six seventy five, and they in the you know,
Speaker 4: their understanding of it is, you know, why not pay
Speaker 4: them minimum wage? But you know this this we we
Speaker 4: we love, we love what your show is doing. And
Speaker 4: just giving giving more education to the public, Well, I
Speaker 4: think it's.
Speaker 2: Important because what happens is everybody, particularly in the president's
Speaker 2: your year, they goes, they go in and no one's
Speaker 2: making up their mind as they're as they're you know,
Speaker 2: walking into the polling place. They know who they're going
Speaker 2: to vote for president. They probably know who they're going
Speaker 2: to vote for US senator. When they get to those
Speaker 2: ballot questions, they'll either tend to blank them or their
Speaker 2: instinct will be probably to say yes because most people
Speaker 2: that's a good idea. Yes yes, yes, yes, yes yes,
Speaker 2: And that's uh that that's an advantage for any particularly
Speaker 2: if they read the first sentence and I don't know
Speaker 2: how the ballot question is phrased. I haven't gotten my
Speaker 2: ballot question book yet, uh, which which I always look
Speaker 2: forward to getting because you can look before you get
Speaker 2: to the polls. And really I try to understand the
Speaker 2: ballot questions ahead of time, by the way, but you
Speaker 2: look when you go to the polls and you say
Speaker 2: to yourself, Okay, I know what I'm going to do,
Speaker 2: and I take a little card with me. I'm going
Speaker 2: to go, you know, on this one, I'm going to
Speaker 2: go yes or no, so I know exactly what it is,
Speaker 2: so I'm not sitting in there or you know, tying
Speaker 2: people up for an hour and a half. Joe, appreciate
Speaker 2: your joining us with your perspective. I appreciate you listening
Speaker 2: to Night's Side.
Speaker 3: Thanks dam, Thanks Sam, Thanks Thank Joe. Good luck in
Speaker 3: Salem in October. I know that's an extremely busy time
Speaker 3: for you. Get thank you it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, good night. Let me keep rolling here. We get
Speaker 2: one more in before the news break, and we're going
Speaker 2: to go to a gym down on the self Shore
Speaker 2: and hint over Massachusetts. Chim, you're next on Nightside with
Speaker 2: Steve Clark, the president CEO of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Hi, I used to be a Canada custodian, and
Speaker 5: I'd cleaned the whole bowl in the li carpets, benches,
Speaker 5: the bar, and the bartender would want it a certain way.
Speaker 5: And I asked at the very first night of my tenure,
Speaker 5: I asked if I got some of the tip and
Speaker 5: they were, oh, no, you don't get that. That's the bartenders.
Speaker 5: And I said, well, the reason he gets the tip
Speaker 5: it isn't just when making the drink. It's for the
Speaker 5: clean area. All the stools are all cleaned, the floor
Speaker 5: around the bar is cleaned, and the butt in the
Speaker 5: Jandita should get a percentage of the tip. That was
Speaker 5: my my pet pee for working there and washing dishes.
Speaker 5: I for washed dishes, and I've made sure there was
Speaker 5: no food stuck on the plate. I'm sure people don't
Speaker 5: want to stare a food on a plate that's got
Speaker 5: something stuck to him. So it's you.
Speaker 2: I don't think you can hear me and talk to
Speaker 2: Jim and tell him I want to ask him a question.
Speaker 2: I don't want to talk over him, but I'd like
Speaker 2: to be able to ask him a question. So if
Speaker 2: he's if you're able to bring him back up, let's
Speaker 2: see if we can get a question into him. I
Speaker 2: think he was having difficulty hearing me. Go ahead, bring
Speaker 2: him up, Okay, Jim, I want to ask you a question.
Speaker 2: We lost him, we lost him, talk to me, guys said,
Speaker 2: show you there tonight. Talked to me. Did you lose
Speaker 2: him here? Yeah? Good, Jim. I'm trying to ask you
Speaker 2: a question. The question that I asked you is did
Speaker 2: you ever get any additional sensation from the bartender or
Speaker 2: the owner or you just would you know? Doing your
Speaker 2: job as it were?
Speaker 5: I did my job to the best of my Adose, No,
Speaker 5: I know that I'm gonna ask you that quit. Do
Speaker 5: you all know it? Called me like two months later
Speaker 5: and said, will you come back to guys?
Speaker 2: He's not interesting conversation. Take it down. Thanks very much, Jim.
Speaker 2: I appreciate your experience. It was fascinating. We're going to
Speaker 2: take a break. Six one, seven, two, five, four ten
Speaker 2: thirty six six one seven, nine three one ten thirty. Folks,
Speaker 2: if you want to call in, I certainly will let
Speaker 2: you tell you a story, no problem, But at some
Speaker 2: point I probably want to engage you in a question,
Speaker 2: in a conversation, and if you're having difficulty hearing me,
Speaker 2: it doesn't make what we call great Radio. We'll be
Speaker 2: right back on next night after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray Mine from the Window World,
Speaker 1: Nice Side Studios on w b Z News Radio.
Speaker 2: Let's go next to Joe and Hebril. Hey Joe, welcome
Speaker 2: you next on nights. I go right ahead. Okay, I
Speaker 2: think Joe's not ready, so let's put Joe on hold. Gentlemen,
Speaker 2: thank you very much, and we'll move on to Alan
Speaker 2: in Framingham. Alan in framing him. How are you Alan?
Speaker 6: I'm good, Dan, how are you boy?
Speaker 2: That's great you're there, and I'm sure the guys told
Speaker 2: you to keep the radio down, so you were all
Speaker 2: set and you're on the air. What would you like
Speaker 2: to say or what question would you like to ask
Speaker 2: of my guest, Steve Clark of the mass Restaurant Association,
Speaker 2: Go right ahead.
Speaker 6: So my comment is that the restaurant industry is one
Speaker 6: of the few industries where you can start off as
Speaker 6: a minimum wage worker and work your way up and
Speaker 6: you know, become a manager or become a supervisor, become
Speaker 6: a district person, become an office person. There's a lot
Speaker 6: of opportunity, and I think that that can so overlooked
Speaker 6: in a lot of these conversations.
Speaker 2: Okay, I think you're right. Are you involved in the business.
Speaker 6: I am involved in the business. I started off as
Speaker 6: a cook myself a long time ago, worked my way up,
Speaker 6: became a manager, decided I wanted to make a switch
Speaker 6: to administration, and I made the switch to administration, and
Speaker 6: now I provide services to people in the industry.
Speaker 4: One of the things that people go ahead, no.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, I didn't mean to drop go.
Speaker 6: Ahead, Nope. One of the things I think people miss.
Speaker 6: And this is kind of a different subject, but in
Speaker 6: terms of the restaurant owner Steve mentioned earlier, restaurant owners
Speaker 6: have very small margins, unlike high tech and things like
Speaker 6: that that have a very high margin. But in the
Speaker 6: restaurant industry Steve mentioned it earlier. Most people now use
Speaker 6: a credit card to pay their bill. So if the
Speaker 6: bill is one hundred dollars and someone leaves a twenty
Speaker 6: or twenty five dollar tip, the restaurant owner is now
Speaker 6: paying the credit card see on those tips. But they
Speaker 6: don't recoup those fees. They can't recoup those fees, so
Speaker 6: it's just another added expense.
Speaker 2: Yep, that's true. Being that's a little inside baseball. But
Speaker 2: fiture I mean, I think the fees on credit cards
Speaker 2: are what three four dollars?
Speaker 6: Uh, fees on credit card trages generally run around three percent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So, I mean it's it's
Speaker 2: significant on a bill that's a one hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: five dollars, you're talking about four dollars and no, I agree.
Speaker 2: That's an interesting, interesting perspective as well. Allan, I appreciate you,
Speaker 2: cal thank you very much. I got a whole bunch
Speaker 2: of other folks like to try to accommodate as well.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for calling, and thanks for listening tonight's side.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna try joe In havebel go ahead, Steve, you
Speaker 2: wanted to say something, sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 3: So I just wanted to just add to one point
Speaker 3: to what Alan was saying. Is very few industries in
Speaker 3: America where you can start in the first job, at
Speaker 3: an anty level job and become the CEO. You know,
Speaker 3: most places that doesn't have that three lattice. But that's
Speaker 3: what makes the restaurant industry great. Most of our owners
Speaker 3: started as cooks in dishwashes, et cetera. So I just
Speaker 3: want to make a plug for the industry.
Speaker 2: Sure, that's fine. That's fine. Let me go now to
Speaker 2: Joe in Haveril and see if Joe is ready at
Speaker 2: this point.
Speaker 4: Joe, No, yes, this is Joe.
Speaker 7: November eleven is Veteras Day. And I've been to many
Speaker 7: restaurants through the years and we get a free meal,
Speaker 7: but we don't have we don't leave a tip. What
Speaker 7: happens then to the waitress says should does?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So, you know, I've been the beneficiary of a complimentary
Speaker 3: meal a few times, and I always try to leave
Speaker 3: a tip for the server because the owner themselves is
Speaker 3: the one that's camping the meal, the server is not.
Speaker 3: So so the server is probably making the minimum wage
Speaker 3: for that day because if there's no tips coming from
Speaker 3: the consumers, then the owner is required to make them
Speaker 3: minimum wage under the laws. So they're probably making fifty
Speaker 3: dollars an hour as a way. But happy Veterance Day
Speaker 3: and thank you for your service.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I appreciate that, Joe. Again, any anyone who has
Speaker 2: a meal complimentary, they certainly should also take care of
Speaker 2: the person who serves them. There's no doubt, no doubt
Speaker 2: about that. Thanks, appreciate you.
Speaker 7: Next time I next time I go to a restaurant
Speaker 7: on Vevermin' Day. It's coming up in November eleventh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it comes like that every year in November eleven.
Speaker 2: It's like clockwork. Joe absolutely in the World War One.
Speaker 2: Thanks Joe, appreciate your call. Let me go to Suzanne
Speaker 2: and Newton. Susanne, next on, nice, I go ahead.
Speaker 9: Hi, thank you for bringing this spolt question to buy attention,
Speaker 9: because I will vote in person. But and I'm sure,
Speaker 9: I mean, if I say it's a credit card, I
Speaker 9: leave to chip in cash, you always.
Speaker 8: Ship at alvers around. If you said tavy of our service,
Speaker 8: and I'm serious, is quite wide? Probably serious? Is the
Speaker 8: waitress's kind of limited? But I'm so glad you brought
Speaker 8: this ballance.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad you gave a chance to think about
Speaker 2: it now. So what you can do is go into
Speaker 2: the polls and make your decision. I think if you
Speaker 2: listen to the arguments that Steve Clark, our guest tonight,
Speaker 2: has made, I think that would probably convince me.
Speaker 8: I'll vote in verses, and now I will vote to
Speaker 8: give tips without cats to the waitress and writers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's not what we're talking about. Thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Susan appreciate your call. Let me go to Beatrice in
Speaker 2: the Bridgewater Beaches, like to get you in here under
Speaker 2: the wire, go right hand.
Speaker 10: Hi Dan, I just want to say that when I
Speaker 10: use my credit card to pay for a meal, I
Speaker 10: always make sure that I have cash on me to
Speaker 10: pay the tip because it's my understanding that the waitresses
Speaker 10: don't get that tip until the credit card company, uh
Speaker 10: you know, pay, so I always make sure that I
Speaker 10: have cash.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let me let me find Let let me just
Speaker 2: find out if that's true, Steve. That surprises me what
Speaker 2: Beatrice said, Is that true?
Speaker 8: Uh?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that it does pay sometimes well in some
Speaker 3: restaurants or cast people out that night and they'll they'll
Speaker 3: wait for the credit card payments to come in. Other
Speaker 3: people have put all the tips in the payroll so
Speaker 3: that the end of the week they get an actual
Speaker 3: paycheck with all the tips calculated out. It really varies
Speaker 3: across the industry, but you know, I do think I
Speaker 3: think the servers love the credit card purchase and the
Speaker 3: cash tip. I think that works out great for them.
Speaker 3: But really it's customer preference of you know, whatever works.
Speaker 3: But yes, there's sometimes a lag on tips, but that's
Speaker 3: because it gets put into a paycheck.
Speaker 2: That's that's an interesting point you raised, Beatrice, and that
Speaker 2: might make me. I tend to, you know, at a restaurant.
Speaker 2: If it's you know, over you know, twenty five, If
Speaker 2: it's under thirty bucks, I'm paying cash with the tip.
Speaker 2: If it's over you know, fifty dollars or something, I'm
Speaker 2: probably putting it on the credit card. And now maybe
Speaker 2: what I think I will do is follow your advice, Beats,
Speaker 2: and have some tens and twenties in my pocket so
Speaker 2: that I can leave a good, healthy, at least minimum
Speaker 2: twenty percent tip in cash, so the waitress or the
Speaker 2: waiter is able to take the money at home that
Speaker 2: night and put it in their piggy bank. Okay, that's
Speaker 2: a great suggestion.
Speaker 10: Only that, but they don't have to pay taxes on it,
Speaker 10: where if they get a tech for it, they would
Speaker 10: have to pay taxes.
Speaker 2: Yep, that's that's another factor. I agree with you. I
Speaker 2: agree with you on that as well.
Speaker 3: And I know, listening.
Speaker 2: Well, I can't imagine that any waiter a waitress would
Speaker 2: not declare all of their cash tips as well.
Speaker 10: I mean, oh yeah, right, I was a wait That's
Speaker 10: what we all recommend I went to Maine recently and
Speaker 10: the bill was ninety five dollars and I put it
Speaker 10: on my credit CAD, but I had money for the
Speaker 10: tip in cash. I don't like to make them wait.
Speaker 2: Good for you, Good for you. That's a great suggestion,
Speaker 2: be just that was one of the better calls this hour.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much.
Speaker 10: Okay, thank you, thanks Uh.
Speaker 2: Steve, Steve Clark, thank you very much. By the way,
Speaker 2: where can folks if they haven't been convinced by this hour?
Speaker 2: I don't know what you're going to be able to
Speaker 2: do to convince them. This was this was almost a
Speaker 2: forfeit by the other side, but we'll leave that for
Speaker 2: other considerations. Uh, is there a website people and get
Speaker 2: more information if they still need a little more information
Speaker 2: before they decide how they're.
Speaker 3: Gonna Yeah, absolutely, protect tips dot org is the full
Speaker 3: campaign website. And of course our website is math the
Speaker 3: Mass rest dot org. So we are the Mass Restaurant
Speaker 3: Association and uh, we're just excited to be on today.
Speaker 3: We're excited to get to election day and hopefully put
Speaker 3: this question behind us and send this idea back to California.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot of cooky ideas come out of California,
Speaker 2: there's no Unfortunately, a lot of them get adopted by
Speaker 2: the other states. Thank you so much, Steve. I appreciate
Speaker 2: it very much. We'll talk soon, okay.
Speaker 3: And thank you very much.
Speaker 4: I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2: Absolutely Right now, interesting hour coming up. We're going to
Speaker 2: talk about something called glossophobia, the fear of public speaking,
Speaker 2: and how to get over it. Back on Nightside, right
Speaker 2: after the ten o'clock news,