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People say it like it's easy just pay $1 more for food in food courts and it automatically solves the problem of the cleaners/dishwashers low wages.
Hello it doesn't work that way. It is still up to the food court management to pay a fair rate.
Hello it doesn't work that way. It is still up to the food court management to pay a fair rate.
One of the canteens my mom's stall is in charges $2500 monthly per stall for housekeeping and dishwashing. There are 10 stalls in total, and that brings it to $25k a month collected. There are 8 staff members in the shift, and their salary ranges from $1.3k-$1.6k
Sure some of them are foreign workers, so even if let's say they are all foreign workers, with levy charges, all 8 workers totals up to 18k. There's another 7k of monies that probably goes to other maintenance fees of the food court (pest control, waste management, exhaust, etc).
Tho tbh, the maintenance fees actually doesn't cost that much (I've peeped the invoices cos they mistook me for being the management). And I am wildly guessing that the rest is swallowed up by the management. Even conservatively speaking, they could be paid 200 more per px.
The above is based on the assumption that every staff is a foreign hire, with salary of 1600, and foreign worker levy of 650, bringing the cost to 2250 per px. The problem is half the staff are locals being paid between 1300-1600, which means more of the fees are not gg to them.
If the assumption is they are all local hires and are being paid 1600, it costs cheaper to hire them, at 1872 with CPF. And that's $14, 976 towards their salaries, while 25k in total is being charged to all the tenants.
Do you see my point now?
Do you see my point now?
Raising the price of food may not even affect the salaries of cleaners or dishwashers specifically in food courts/canteens because ultimately, it is still up to the food court management's discretion to pay them fairly or not.
Of course, the idea of the $1 extra for a meal came from the minimum wage discussions.
At the same time, I've always believed that food establishments can always afford to pay fair wages to their cleaners and dishwashers without passing on the cost to tenants and consumers.
At the same time, I've always believed that food establishments can always afford to pay fair wages to their cleaners and dishwashers without passing on the cost to tenants and consumers.
I mean come on, do you really believe that certain chain of food courts with annual profits in millions cannot afford to pay their cleaners a fair wage?
It would be but a dent.
It would be but a dent.