HAMBURG, N.Y. — A Hamburg restaurant owner says he is having big problems finding employees and the only people applying are teenagers with no experience.
Jimmy Butera is blaming a lot of factors, including the unemployment benefits people are collecting. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Butera, a restaurant owner, says when he'd post a job, he'd get 10 applicants and three or four would show up for interviews, then only one would show up for work.
Now, Butera says the only people applying are teenagers with no experience.
Butera is also the president of the Western New York Chapter of the New York Restaurant Association, so he is tracking trends. Monday, Butera and Congressman Chris Jacobs held a press conference. They are both against the extra $300 a week in federal unemployment benefits going beyond September.
Jacobs is trying to pass legislation to reinstate the work search requirement for unemployment and thinks people are taking advantage of the situation.
Butera says he is doing every job in his kitchen because he can't find employees and blames the stimulus money people have gotten, among other things.
"My opinion is there's a lot of things," Butera said. "Some fear of coming back to work. Some because they're getting unemployment with the extra $300, so who would they give up the free money to actually physically work, you know, in our industry, I think 38-percent of our cooks and trained people, due to shutdowns, couldn't sit without money, so they went and found other careers to get into."
For Butera, he says it's not realistic to give new employees bonuses like some places are. And, we asked him if he thinks he will increase his hourly pay rates to get more people to apply.
"I don't know if that's actually going to become a point or not," Butera said. "Unfortunately, it seems like it's going that way, but I got, I got a staff full of young kids. Sixteen and 15-year-old kids that, you know, do they need more money? Should they get paid more money? Minimum wage is going to go up to $15 an hour, and I ask everybody, you know, what does a 16-year-old or a 15-year-old person need with that kind of money?"
He says he could see justifying paying people with experience more money.
To help struggling restaurants, the federal government approved more than 101,000 businesses in the U.S. for Restaurant Revitalization Fund grants, including a more than $89,000 grant for a business with the same address as Butera's.
A quick internet search shows "LNJB Inc" does business as Butera's.