So a few weeks ago, a friend of mine introduced me to what I thought was an awesome coffee shop/cafe called Republic Coffee. They had geat food with a nice vegetarian selection (the latter being very rare in Memphis). They also tout themselves as serving the community and “acting LOCAL while thinking GLOBAL.” Sounds great, eh?
Well, then I met someone who worked there. This person told me that the shifts were 10 hours long, and they had to train for 30 hours before they could get any pay (including tips). When I heard this, I naturally thought, well, they must pay well if they’re going to put the employees through this kind of crap. I was incredibly wrong. They pay their employees minimum wage.
Holy crap! Good job! Way to serve the community!
Seriously- I had a high school job at a restaurant that paid better than minimum wage. How can you talk about how good you are with a clear concience?!? Greed. It’s creeping in from all directions.
You do know that the owner is living in the office don’t you? I guess that is greedy.
No. However, I still find it paradoxical to tout community service but to pay minimum wage and practice unpaid training. I am aware that working in a coffee shop doesn’t normally pay more than minimum wage, but I was under the assumption that this one would be different based on it’s missions. The whole unpaid training thing is just sad, especially considering that when going through training for a job, it’s uncommon to have another source of income at the same time.
Wouldn’t someone living in their office be more connected to a financially struggling employee? If not for hard-working employees, the owner could be sleeping someplace less desirable than an office.
Wow, i never knew that office meant the same thing as upstairs apartment. I must be the most amazing person ever, because i don’t pay people to work and i live in an “office” too!