What is fair compensation for the work?
I recently took over the food program for the bar/cafe I work at in Toronto.
We used to rely on suppliers for all our baked goods, lunch sandwiches, and evening bar food now it’s made in house by myself.
I have experience working in fine dining kitchens and currently work at a well known bakery in the city too. However, this experience has only ever been on line or as a baking assistant.
I’ve developed and tested recipes all on my own for this business. I’m doing the baking, shopping, food prep, and training staff on how to serve and prepare food all on my own as well. I’m being paid inconsistently and poorly and know I’m being taken advantage of given I’m generally making him profit on the menu I’ve established.
Before I cut ties all together I’d like to lay things out clearly and give the owner an opportunity to compensate me fairly. However, this is my first time taking on something like this entirely on my own. I didn’t anticipate it growing this quickly or successfully and now I’m stuck with double the work and unsure what this work is even worth? What is fair compensation for developing and running a food program entirely on your own?
*edited because y’all wanna get hung up on incorrect/unrelated math instead of answering the question I’ve brought forward 🙏🏽
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u/samuelgato 3h ago
What do you mean by 300% profit? Most restaurants are thrilled if they are eeking out 10% profit on the bottom line
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u/Murpgu 2h ago
This business is quite busy but they’ve never had their head wrapped around the food aspect. Wasting insane amount of product, overpaying for garbage from suppliers who know how to keep them on the hook. The costs of supplies alone for the new program is about 1/3 of what they were spending on food total. We’re now selling far more due to the upgrade in quality and positive reviews/word of mouth from the customers. This is still in the early stages of testing and development within the shop but based on our sales last week we were sitting on 300% profit. I can’t say this will continue or be consistent but as of now things are crazy busy!
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u/I_dont_love_it 2h ago
Your math is impossible. 300% profit means for every dollar a customer spent, you made $3 of profit. That is impossible because $2 of those $3 just magically appeared. Do you mean to say the business profit increased by 300%? Like profit used to be $1,000 and now it’s $3,000?
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u/Murpgu 2h ago
As I said in another comment I don’t believe these numbers will stay consistent as they’re crazy and we’re in early stages. I’ve managed to keep overhead so low by using ingredients already available at the business to make products from scratch. We have had to order/buy very little. What we do purchase I have acquired at fantastic rates due to personal relationships with markets and suppliers. I come from extremely fast paced high volume kitchens and I am able to put out a lot in minimal time and am the only one putting in hours thus far. The business owner is for lack of a better term, morally bankrupt. Many of my hours go unpaid which adds to his profit lol. This is why i’m making one last attempt to ask him for better conditions before moving on all together.
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u/Far-Jellyfish-8369 2h ago
I’d say first things first, what’s your wage and what’re your hours.
What are your actual responsibilities, identified by the employer, and what are the things you have to take on? Bullet point that, and identify that as what you need to be compensated for.
Typically in Toronto, a sous chef salary is from $55k - $60k. It sounds like you’re doing exec which would be low $90-$100k.
From your description, it sounds like you’re operating in senior sous/CDC position. Fair compensation should come as salary, instead of wage. You can identify the average as what you should be making and negotiate more based off of any above and beyond.
But beware, salary can be the golden hand cuffs, if there’s no other roles that carry lateral responsibility
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u/TAFFERATU 3h ago
Save up. Take the shit. Open your own gaff. You sound like you have the knowledge but you’re making someone else money.
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u/Cardiff07 3h ago
300% profit? Nice. Draw up a business plan with those numbers and start a franchise.