It is amazing that some of our neighborhood bars have managed to turn the increase in minimum wages into an additional profit center. Once wading through the crocodile tears, our Weho bar owners have an opportunity to make even more money. It’s simple math.
As an example, when a popular bar & restaurant (let’s say on Robertson Blvd, just south of Santa Monica) raises their drink prices by another $1.00 (as they all do on holidays and pride weekend), the net windfall to the bar is large.
While I think that having a “politically correct” increase in minimum wage is silly and ill-thought, it is an advantage to a big volume bar business at the expense of the customers, that is until such time as the tipping point creates a decrease in unit sales, otherwise known as customers buying fewer drinks.
The math is as follows: If a bartender at any popular bar in West Hollywood sells about 1000 drinks in an 8-hour shift, which is only 125 drinks per hour (considered to be low on many days/nights in popular bars such as the example above), the bar picks up $1,000 per bartender, per day. The increase in wages amounts to $12.64 per bartender per 8-hour day. Adding in the support bar staff of barbacks and/or cooks of an overly huge working staff of 50 people per day only totals $632 per day. If a popular bar has 10 bartenders, that means there is an increase in revenue of $10,000 per day with an additional expense of only $632. That means that the increase in revenue for a...
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