Catherwood LibraryILR School

With 20 states increasing their minimum wage levels in 2019, restaurants are increasingly eyeing technology and retention programs to help with both a tight labor market and increasing bottom lines. Turnover in the hospitality industry can be volatile, with 72 percent of workers leaving their positions in 2017. The low unemployment rate, with fewer teens entering the workforce, has not helped staffing issues, and restaurants have either been forced to raise wages to encourage applications, cut labor-intensive menu items, or have turned to technology to either help with distributing labor towards the kitchen rather than front registers, or with tracking employee performance in order to reward them for good productivity. Other kinds of retention programming have included college tuition assistance, improved parental leave benefits and sick days for part-time employees, and clustering delivery areas closer together for in order for employees to do more runs and earn more tips.