City Cafe Bakery

[Spokes]

Café touts benefit of 'living wage'
Paying employees well a recipe for productive, happy workers, return customers, owner says

October 21, 2008
Frances Barrick
RECORD STAFF; THE RECORD

WATERLOO REGION - On a crisp fall morning, chef Ken Munson greets the steady stream of customers by name as they enter a popular Kitchener bakery.

Munson, 47, doesn't miss a beat as he chats, brews coffee, makes change and bakes 100 bagels an hour in the open ovens at City Café Bakery on West Avenue, at Victoria Street.

"You can't get that with a minimum-wage person," bakery owner John Bergen said yesterday.

While many people doing similar work in the food industry make Ontario's minimum wage of $8.75 an hour, Bergen pays his employees a starting rate of $15 an hour.

"The best way to make money is to pay higher wages and have good customers," he said.

The Region of Waterloo is considering implementing a living-wage policy that would set a minimum wage of $13.62 an hour -- about $26,000 a year -- for people working for the region, either on staff or on contract.

The principle behind a living wage is that workers should be paid enough to live on without the need of social assistance or food banks.

While 125 U.S. cities have some form of living-wage policy, no Canadian municipality has adopted one. Waterloo Region could be the first.

Today, councillors will consider a staff recommendation to spend $52,500 to hire consultants for a study of the implications for the region if a living wage is adopted. The consultants would also gather public opinion on the issue.

Bergen said a living wage is a good idea.

He needs skilled, smart and mature employees who quickly get to know customers by name, qualities the Ontario minimum wage can't attract, he said. Higher wages attract productive employees who don't quit.

Bergen has 15 employees at his bakeries in Kitchener and Cambridge.

He said Munson is three times more productive than a less-skilled, lower-paid employee who needs supervision.

"You get what you pay for," he said.

A living wage would also create a safer community, he said.

Studies have shown communities with a greater wage disparity have more crime, he said.

Bergen's bakeries generate $1.2 million a year, and the profit margin is at least 10 per cent. His goal is to open bakeries in Waterloo and Guelph.

His workers are so efficient, he said, he only needs to work two days a week. Last year he took eight weeks of holidays.

Serafino Burreci, 57, has been a chef at the bakery for three years. Being paid well makes him work harder, he said. "I love working here. This is the place to be. It's happening here."

fbarrick@therecord.com
http://news.therecord.com/article/432029