'We have no rights.' Frustrated with California wage laws, Moonstone Bistro in Redding cuts lunch service

If your business can't survive without paying slave wages then your business shouldn't survive.

"Employers are unprotected. We have no rights. We don't get overtime or breaks. The only thing we get is what's left over after everyone else takes their cut. At some point, the risk outweighs the reward."

Right, that's what Entrepreneurship is. You take the big risks for the potential for big rewards. If you're not earning enough after paying all the bills, maybe your business model isn't viable.

Lol, "we can't serve lunch to rich people unless someone is payed starvation wages" is not the high ground they think it is.

You know they're idiots because someone approved using papyrus for their sign.

Get fucked.

If your company can't pay a living wage, it doesn't deserve to exist.

Does Lemmy have a !RemindMe bot yet? Because I give these entitled assholes 6 months.

You, in fact, do not have a right to other people's labor at your preferred price, dipshit.

Awe does the poor wittle business owner want another handout?

Get fucked and go bankrupt fucking parasite.

"If you can make $20/hour at Taco Bell, with no experience, how much money do you think I'm going to have to pay a cook, who actually has experience?" Stedman continued. "I have to compete with that. Worse, I have to compete for somebody who has zero cooking experience. None, none at all!"

OH GOD, WE CAN'T EXPLOIT THE LABOR ANYMORE. WOE IS US. PLEASE GOD SHOW SOME SYMPATHY FOR OUR GREAT BURDEN OF NOT BEING ABLE TO EXPLOIT THE DESPERATE ANYMORE!

The statement from them is rich.

"We, as business owners, do not feel that we are the ones exploiting people. We pay huge taxes, fees, licenses, inspections, Workman's Comp, insurance, you name it. We do this for the right to work really hard, and to create jobs. Yet...we are being told that WE are the reason why people can't afford their rent. We are told we should pay everyone more, while we work harder, and for less. Employers are unprotected. We have no rights. We don't get overtime or breaks. The only thing we get is what's left over after everyone else takes their cut. At some point, the risk outweighs the reward.

For us, we cannot accept more liability and expense. We have to pay our rent, too. So we are reducing our costs. Reducing our liability. We are concentrating our efforts on the area that is most successful. Tanya and I, as most other business owners, are tired of hearing how it's our fault people can't afford their lives; tired of being told we need to work harder so other people can have more; tired of being told we should be happy with having less, working more, being liable and responsible for everyone and everything, so other people can have a better life."

Boo-fucking-hoo. Just do it and don’t grandstand about it, nobody fucking cares how hard you think it is to be upper middle class.

lolll it's a fine dining restaurant too. nothing worse than making dozens of meals per hour that each cost far more than you make per hour

If we stopped working, these jobs disappear

— Che Stedman

Additional comment:

If you can make $20/hour at Taco Bell, with no experience, how much money do you think I'm going to have to pay a cook, who actually has experience?

— Che Stedman

Well Che. It looks like if you did stop working a Taco Bell will replace you. So your jobs disappear, correct, but it absolutely opens it up for someone else to move in. Also, the reason Taco Bell requires zero experience is because they have sat there for the last umpteen years streamlining their process which came at a non-zero cost.

Innovate Che. That's the name of the game. Being an entrepreneur means thinking fast on your feet and having to adapt to a landscape that is tilted against you. Yes, the big players have had decades to consolidate their power and create a business world that makes breaking into the Restaurant business near impossible. Join the crowd of Ma and Pa gas stations, grocery stores, computer shops, and so on that the lack of enforcing anti-competitive laws has wrought.

Don't make it sound like we're terrible because we're undervaluing people's work. I think it's time for us to understand that our work is being undervalued, and that we're being told that we are terrible people because we are not giving enough

— Che Stedman

No, Che you seem to be missing the point. The problem is the folks you need to compete with having unfair advantage and you wanted to undervalue peoples' work to play your advantage. What this law is doing is removing that from the play book of ANY company altogether. Seeing how that was your ONLY play in your playbook, you are out of "innovation" that other companies still have three billion more plays to try. Your beef is mostly with the big boys getting unfair advantage.

But we cannot carve out an except for you because, aforementioned big boys have also abused their position to make the cost of living insane. As opposed to trying to argue your old play maybe… petition your local government to tell fast food chains to leave? So long as there are Taco Bells that can fall back on their parent company Yum Brands, small business and the everyday man will never win.

That's the really cool thing. In an actual free market, paying that $20/hr doesn't hurt you. Even better, in an actual free market, we don't even need the $20/hr to keep our heads above water.

We, as business owners, do not feel that we are the ones exploiting people. We pay huge taxes, fees, licenses, inspections, Workman's Comp, insurance, you name it. We do this for the right to work really hard, and to create jobs. Yet...we are being told that WE are the reason why people can't afford their rent

— Che Stedman

No Che. You're correct that your don't feel like you are exploiting people. However, paying people less than a living wage is just that. However, you aren't the one setting that cost of living and that's the bigger point here. You're upset that your current game plan is no longer valid, but you're so salty that you don't want to come up with a better game plan. Us small people, we feel this every day. Not having control, watching shadowy conglomerates dictate our day to day lives, and what not. It's so ingrain at this point, I'm having trouble articulating all the ways we're being screwed by large businesses much in the same way I'd have difficulty explaining what breathing actually feels like.

Che the thing is, that pain, that sting in your heart. You're just now feeling it. I know buddy. Hell someone decided that some generation was killing off diamonds and Applebee's so mutual feels on that having someone tell you that you are the reason for something.

So I guess best I can tell you Che is that, grab you a pitchfork and join the crowd who want the billionaires of this planet to stop making this world shitty. I mean I don't know really. It just seems like its always going down the shitter every fifteen seconds. I've been on this train going down so long, I couldn't possibly know which direction is up at this point.

But pay your people a living wage, that's core. Post that, start fighting for lowering that cost. Stop trying to cling to your old playbook of under paying people. You're not looking entrepreneurial. Oh and also.

Tanya and I, as most other business owners, are tired of hearing how it's our fault people can't afford their lives; tired of being told we need to work harder so other people can have more; tired of being told we should be happy with having less, working more, being liable and responsible for everyone and everything, so other people can have a better life

— Che Stedman

Buddy, that's Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and sometimes a Sunday for us. If you're just now getting upset about being told that… I mean, you can come over and I'll give you a cookie. It helps my mood. But definitely not my waistline.

Most other countries pay their servers a decent wage and don't make them rely on tips to survive and those countries have a shit ton of great restaurants that I've eaten at.

"Make that path easier. Make it less expensive, make it more simple, streamline it. Instead of putting roadblocks in front of it, open it up. Guide people," Che said.

Moonstone Bistro owners, Che and Tanya Stedman

When asked whether they felt it was disrespectful to those who work minimum wage jobs to downplay their importance, the Stedmans were direct.

"Tanya and I are the reason why this business exists, not the opposite," Che told KRCR's Sam Chimenti on Wednesday. "If we stopped working, these jobs disappear. Don't make it sound like we're terrible because we're undervaluing people's work. I think it's time for us to understand that our work is being undervalued, and that we're being told that we are terrible people because we are not giving enough."

So close.…

What a bunch of entitled bullshit. I look forward to his businesses failure.

They have no rights to basically enslave people? Is that what they're bitching about? Businesses who can't/won't their employees a living wage shouldn't exist in the first place. They're normally those that life can go on without anyway.

The restaurant across the street just doubled their business. That’s capitalism.

Redding is as close to not California as it comes. They can fuck off to Jefferson, or oreida or whatever they want to call it.

But please send the owner of Mom's restaurant somewhere more friendly when you do?

People like this think that it’s a right to own a business lmao. If you’re unprofitable, fuck off then.

I mean the difference between them and they employees is that they can sell their restaurant when they want to quit at a good profit while their employees have to leave with only the clothes on their back.

“If we stopped working, these jobs disappear."

Why would they be cutting service, they dont even need these employees if the owners are doing all the work.

These owners are pathetic. They need to quit being bums and get some fucking jobs!

Rich asshole bad at business, good at getting whiny complaints broadcasted to public.

Aww poor baby

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