While the boom in San Francisco has helped boost business, shops and restaurants are finding that they have no one to make the sales.
“We’re desperate,” said Jefferson McCarley, the owner of Mission Bicycle.
McCarley said he once chased a customer for two blocks down the street after thinking that his noticeably sunny attitude would make him good at sales. Unfortunately for Mission Bicycle, the man was a medical professional.
Chewy Marzolo, who manages Escape From New York pizza on 22nd Street, is hiring a prep cook and has been looking for a few weeks. That used to be the easiest position to fill, “because until recently, that’s something that everyone here knew how to do,” he said. Signs in window would fill the position.
This time, no one came in to apply, so he went to Craigslist. Twelve people responded to the ad, and only two showed up for interviews. Many candidates had more administrative experience than cooking experience.
“It’s because the working class of San Francisco is disappearing,” said Marzolo. Despite the recent minimum wage hike, he said, the city is too expensive. “Even with that jump, which is huge… People can’t afford to work for it.”
At Harrington Galleries, a furniture store on Valencia Street that has been in business for more than 40 years, finding workers is a struggle.
“It’s very hard to find people to work,” said owner-manager Fiona O’Connor. “People can drive for Uber.”
O’Connor needs a part-time manager with some experience in interior design, who would start at around $16 an hour. After a month, she still hasn’t found anyone. She hired a recruiter, for the first time ever, finding that Craigslist and a hiring sign in the window weren’t cutting it.
“People don’t even come in,” she said. “It’s hard for a small business to pay high wages.”
The job has attractive qualities, O’Connor said – 16th and Valencia is a nice place to work, and her business has been a springboard for former employees to reach other successful positions. But the great location comes at a cost.
“The cost of living is very high,” O’Connor acknowledged. She also noted that the cost of commuting from the East Bay on BART quickly cuts into $16 an hour.
“So how far are you commuting, and is it worth it?,” she said. “Or do you want to share an apartment with, like, 10 people?”
At the taqueria Pancho Villa, the problem is similar.
“It’s very hard, because they want a lot of money,” said Fernando Pérez, who supervises the 16th Street branch of the taqueria.
The popular restaurant makes money, Pérez said, but most of it goes back to supplies and to paying the workers. Many of the location’s 48 workers regularly work overtime, which is required to be compensated at a higher rate. Most employees commute from the East Bay.
Under Qualified, Yet Picky
Still, the weekend rushes bring throngs of people through the doors, and Pancho Villa needs three or four more full-time employees – but most people, Pérez said, don’t want to work weekends.
“They come and apply, but they want office hours. Of course, it’s not an office job,” he said.
The taqueria has been hiring for six months with some luck attracting applicants, but less luck in getting them to stay.
“Sometimes employees come, learn a little bit, and go somewhere else,” Pérez said. “I think people send employees here to learn our recipes.”
Isabel Valdez, whose mother owns El Salvador Restaurant on Mission Street between 18th and 19th streets, said she’s had signs in the window seeking a cook and a bilingual waiter or waitress for more than six months.
“Six or seven years ago, waitresses and waiters could work in just Spanish, but now it has to be bilingual,” she said. Pupusas, too, require particular skill, and Valdez is looking for a cook with experience and can’t spend too much time training a new hire – especially not on the rising minimum wage.
“Workers, they’re getting good wages, but everything is expensive,” she said, citing the rising costs of meat, eggs and other supplies.
Unlike some of the Valencia Street merchants, Valdez said nobody has come in asking her for more than what she’s offering, because they come from the East Bay, where the minimum wage is lower.
At Taylor Stitch, a clothing shop on Valencia Street, hiring is a challenge, but manager Kenny Fee said this might be in part because of the shop’s high standards. A strong brand image and a preference for hiring workers living in the city narrows the options some, he said.
The store has been looking to fill a retail position for about a month, and while there has been plenty of interest, many candidates are simply not qualified for the job.
“We don’t pay minimum wage, so we don’t ask for the minimum,” Fee said.
Working On A Wage Hike
Inevitably, the cost of living is a factor in finding employees, and many come with demands.
“The pay to rent ratio is kinda crazy,” Fee said. “People can’t work for the pay…People are very upfront about what they’re looking for.”
McCarley at Mission Bicycle is hiring retail staff for between $15 and $18 an hour. One candidate, who turned out to be homeless during his job interview, told McCarley he needed a job with an annual salary of about $80,000. Many others simply don’t show up to interviews. Marzolo at Escape From New York pizza has had candidates make it all the way to the training process before disappearing without a trace.
“Honestly, to survive in San Francisco on $15, $16, $17 is not easy,” McCarley acknowledged. Which, he and others observed, is simply resulting in driving people out of the city and attracting more commuter workers.
And the wage hike itself, intended to make the city more livable for hourly workers, is making it tough on business, they said. Minimum hourly wage rose from $9.79 in 2010 to $12.25 this year.
“It’s just too fast,” said Marzolo. He has lived in the city for 30 years and worked 10 of those years at Rainbow Grocery cooperative. The hike, he said, is wearing on loyal workers who have seen their wages rise, but now get paid the same as brand new hires. “I can’t afford to bring them up,” Marzolo added.
What’s more, stricter immigration controls have further whittled away at the employee base. “There are qualified people out there for small businesses,” Marzolo said. “But they’re living in fear.”
Kathy, I agree. The poor city management began with rent control and its numerous progeny, and still reproducing.It was never about ‘planning’, but always about pandering to avaricious tenants,who sold their vote for cheap rent.
Property rights are the problem, the big, big elephant in the room. Cities need the power not just to control rents but to set hard, inflexible ceilings on the value of real property–SF needs to roll it back to about 1985 that way. Otherwise, index the city’s minimum wage to housing costs and if it’s got to be $50 an hour, then it’s got to be $50 an hour.
I just did some calculating: At $15/hr a full-time job after taxes nets about 1600 – 1700/mo. Avg. rent for one person in a share situation is 1000. That leaves a meager 600 or 700 left over for all other bills and expenses. Cost of public transit from East Bay is exorbitant. Basically things are crashing down exactly as a consequence of very poor planning/management/public policy. Not to mention the effect of mass illegal immigration, insane levels of crime and drug abuse, and other issues with the Bay Area. People are starting to wonder why anyone would even want to be in this place. In the end there will only be elites and illegals left. That is the result of the policies and mismanagement.
Did you not read the end of the article? The last quote is from a business owner who would hire immigrants but none of them will apply now because of stricter immigration controls.
It’s funny — “illegals” usually get accused of driving down wages. Now they’re also somehow responsible for a lack of low-cost employees? I guess you can blame them for everything if you try hard enough.
Say thank you to all the NIMBY dorks who don’t want to build the housing that our local job engine requires. Anti-housing is racist, classist and hurts our economy, especially small businesses. It’s time to innovate new housing solutions and say goodbye to anti-development.
$16 an hour? In a city where the median price for a condo is >$1.1M???
Excellent article.
Also BART doesn’t run all that late making return commutes to the east bay difficult for those late shift workers
Remember we have had 10,000 residents displaced from the Mission as of 2000 8,000 of those were Latino’s and still counting. The same problem is happening on 24th. The working class and middle class can not afford to live here.
Perhaps every one of these businesses needs raise their prices. It’s supply and demand. Costs go up, prices go up. A burrito can’;t be $5.
NIce to see the power be in the hands of the employees and not the businesses. Eventually, the business owners will be forced to pay more per hour so they can hire folks. Pay less people more money and figure out a way to be more efficient. Good owners figure out that it is better to pay your employees a little more than the competition as you tend to get more efficient workers and have way less turnover. The longer an employee works for you, the more they can accomplish and the less training is needed. It’s a win win.
Great article. I am amazed of the amount of now hiring signs I see walking around. Two things I find interesting. The lack of qualified aplicants I can see. What shocks me is the lack of applications they’re recieving. Supply and demand at its finest. Minimum wage has nothing to do with it. These businesses either need to start paying more or owners need to start working more for not even minimum wage. These establishments have horrible service because the few employees have to do so much work. Probably best to pay your employees more to get qualified applicants and raise your prices to make up for it. No reason a burrito should cost only 1/2 the hourly wage. For example, at $15 an hour a business needs to charge more then $7.50 for a burrito. I recommend pay employees $20 and hour and charge $12.50 for a burrito. Service will be better and you’ll get more customers. Win win
I rather make my own burritos at that price
I’m not paying $12.50 for a burrito.
Please also tip them. These are the people who serve you.
I’m not even paying $7.50!
Everyone likes to call landlords greedy, but they are all out to make as much money for themselves as they can.
That’s because many landlords ARE greedy. Hence workers’ demands for higher wages, to pay their exorbitant rents.