(This commentary is based on an article entitled “The crippling problem restaurant-goers haven’t noticed but chefs are freaking out about” by Roberto A. Ferdman, August 12, 2015, retrieved from The Washington Post. See full URL at bottom of page.)
“Too rich for my blood” was a common refrain we would use as 20-year old ski-bums living in Sun Valley, Idaho, circa 1979. We were referring to two things; the rapidly increasing amount of ultra-expensive luxury homes being built in the area, and the fact that they were causing the rent in our (and every other), run-down apartment building to skyrocket as property values went up. Many of these new homes were vacation properties for those able to afford a second house in a ski resort.
One of the unanticipated results of this unbridled growth was many restaurants found it increasingly difficult to find and keep the employees they needed to operate. This was due to local wage growth not keeping up with the increases in rent, and restaurant workers leaving the area after being unable to find affordable housing.
After the rent in Dog Alley (the actual name of our apartment building) went up as a result of the growth with no corresponding increase in our meager restaurant wages, both myself and my roommate decided to head for greener pastures. (I worked at Warm Springs Restaurant from Spring of 1978 through fall of 1979, when I first came to Bellingham, and was a chef for part of my time there).
I refer to this gap between income and affordable housing as the “Ski Resort Syndrome”. In Sun Valley, the restaurant workers were often young people simply wanting to ski a year or two such as myself. Those with vacation homes were often part-time residents who sought out the quality of life offered in the valley, including the variety of great restaurants. The remainder were the year-round residents who actually had to make a living in the area.
In addition to the restaurant employees moving out, most-full time residents struggled with increased taxes as property values rose through no fault of their own, business rents for local restaurant owners increased rapidly making it even harder for them to retain employees, and the part-time residents eating at the restaurants may have experienced a poorly cooked meal or slow service due to a lack of quality staff.
Your response might be, “Well, outside of ski areas, aren’t we really just talking about low wages for those people who work at places like McDonald’s?”
If you enjoy dining at good restaurants, then think again. The article referenced at the beginning of this commentary describes the current shortage of good of chefs in major markets including Seattle (also see, There’s a Shortage of Cooks in Seattle Restaurants’ Kitchens). A shortage as much from high demand as due to recent low or stagnant wage growth in service-sector jobs, combined with increasing living expenses in rapidly-growing metropolitan areas, making it difficult for service sector employees to find affordable housing.
Let me mention that we at Dine and Drink Bellingham operate from the belief that affordable housing and food should be accessible to all, even those who for a variety of reasons, may temporarily or permanently be unable to afford it. If you are a person who enjoys dining out, but also feel that adequate food and housing should be accessible to all, then follow this magazine as we will explore these topics from time-to-time.
The crux of the issue is, while paying someone a lower than living wage may benefit certain industries in the short term, paying people lower than a living wage, has a negative short and long-term effects on our economy as a whole. In the case of some ski resorts, subsidized housing had to be built to accommodate workers who had previously been able to afford to live in these areas without additional subsidies.
I have long believed the erosion of real income in this country would grow to become a severe weight on the US economy. In fact, there is more and more evidence that this is happening and the “Ski Resort Syndrome” is affecting broad parts of it.
Despite our recent “economic recovery”, the gap between real wage growth and the actual cost of living continues to grow. This not only hurts the people directly affected, but makes it much harder over the long term for our economy as a whole to thrive. In this case, it is not only young ski-bums that are affected, it is a vast majority of working Americans.
The four articles I have included for review are direct evidence of how significant the problem of wage-disparity is becoming. Two are pertinent to this site because they relate to restaurants, specifically how restaurants are having a tough time finding new chefs. Prevailing wages are not attractive enough to be drawing new people into the industry in sufficient numbers to fill demand, This seems to be especially severe in markets that have growing economies, but lack broad-based increases in real income. These markets like Seattle, tend to have rapidly increasing property values (hence rent).
The first article is linked to above. The second titled The crippling problem restaurant-goers haven’t noticed but chefs are freaking out about, by Roberto A. Ferdman, was published in the Washington Post on August 12, 2015. It discusses the problem in major markets with Seattle noted in the article as a place where it can be hard to find a good chef.
Two others are relevant because “The Syndrome” has cropped up with a vengeance in Seattle. It is not only chefs that are struggling with wage/living expense disparity. As I said the effects are much broader.
One prime example of this is occurring right now in Seattle. In one of the fastest growing economies in the US, these articles discuss the growing trend of people being driven out of not only lower income housing, but from traditionally middle-class areas as well. They also discuss the difficulty people are having finding comparable housing once displaced. They are both by columnist Sanjay Bhatt and retrieved from “The Seattle Times“. The first is titled, Region at a crossroads as home-buying power shrinks published on December 29th, 2015, and the second is Rising towers, rising rents push out tenants of modest means, published on April 15th, 2014.
Major cities already have to provide low-income and subsidized housing for segments of their populations, that may have to be expanded to cover the middle class as well in order to maintain some diversity in neighborhoods.
To close, I leave you with a question to ponder – are we coming to an age where we will have to subsidize people formerly considered as middle class wage-earners, as well as lower wage earners? An age where our teachers, police officers, and other middle wage workers that have traditionally been the backbone of our economy, must either live miles outside of city limits, or leave the area altogether? We may have an answer soon from our larger neighbor to the south.
If you would like to comment, please register for our site by clicking on the “Member’s Page” link at the top of the home page. While our main focus at DDB is as a resource for those interested in the region’s wide variety of dining or drinking establishments, we actively support efforts to provide food and housing to those who lack it, and those who are at-risk of losing it.
URLS of articles cited:
“There’s a Shortage of Cooks in Seattle’s Restauarants’ Kitchens” retrieved from SeattleMet http://www.seattlemet.com/articles/2015/7/28/there-s-a-shortage-of-cooks-in-seattle-restaurants-kitchens
“The crippling problem restaurant-goers haven’t noticed but chefs are freaking out about”, retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/08/12/the-crippling-problem-people-who-eat-at-restaurants-havent-noticed-but-chefs-are-freaking-out-about/?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_2_na
“Region at a Crossroads as Home Buying Power Shrinks”, retrieved from http://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/region-at-a-crossroads-as-home-buying-power-shrinks/, The Seattle Times, December 29th, 2015
“Rising Rents, Rising Towers push out Tenants of Modest Means“, retrieved from http://www.seattletimes.com/business/rising-rents-rising-towers-push-out-tenants-of-modest-means/, The Seattle Times
