We are surprised by the March 22 editorial about working conditions in Northampton restaurants. While the recent UMass Labor Center study is troubling, we restaurant owners are not all as “dirty” as the Gazette would have its readers believe.
At the Woodstar Cafe we are living wage certified by Living Wage Western Mass. We offer health benefits, paid sick time, a Simple IRA with matching funds, and free food! We also pay overtime and give bonuses. We do these things for many reasons. The main reason is that our employees deserve every penny.
Another reason is that when workers feel valued they make good workers. Additionally, we are in competition for employees with the other restaurants in town, and this is where our surprise comes in. If the Woodstar Cafe was the only restaurant in Northampton offering a living wage and safe working conditions we would have our pick of employees, but that is not the case. We do dozens of job interviews every year and during those interviews we are in the unique position of being able to ask candidates how much they earned at their last job (which likely was a job in Northampton) and what they didn’t like about their last job.
Their stories and the picture painted by the study do not match up. The information that we have gained from present and past employees of other establishments has only driven us to do more and pay more because we need to in order to attract great workers. There is no doubt that there are employers falling short of their duties, but that our business, and other fine businesses would be scolded to “scrub away our dirty habits” is unkind and incorrect.
Rebecca and Dmitri Robbins
Williamsburg