January is right around the corner – are you ready for the minimum wage increase?  Minimum wage will go up to $12.00/hr starting January 1, 2019 – this means that on January 1 you should update your POS system with the new wage for those that are currently lower than this rate.  If you are OUTSIDE the boundaries of San Diego County, AND you have 25 or fewer employees, your minimum wage will go to $11.00/hr.  Further, the minimum salary will increase to $49,920 so make sure you are compliant.  See us for more details and how we can ensure you are compliant.

Does your kitchen staff purchase supplies for the restaurant from a major food vendor?  Do you know that if you source this out through APP or IPFS or another local company you could save a significant amount of money?  Shamrock and US Foods or Sysco may offer cups and lids for $2 more than a company that specializes in these products – quantity is king!  Make sure your kitchen is sourcing all products through the cheapest places but still ensure your product quality is kept up – you will see the difference in your cash!

It’s nationwide – if you have a manager who is exempt you need to be prepared to increase their salary to a minimum of $47,476 per year.  This is only for exempt workers who do not qualify for overtime under the exemption rules.  If you are in California, they will get another increase in January to $47,840 due to the minimum wage increasing January 1, 2017.  Make sure you plan ahead for these changes so that your payroll stays in line with where it should be.

Do you know that you have a better chance of saving money with payroll if you did?

If you verify your punches only at payroll time, you might not remember that Employee Joe Smith left early two Saturday’s ago, so when you go to fill in the time punch that he didn’t clock out for, you look at what he was scheduled for, and you have just overpaid Joe by the amount of time that he left early for.  Employees sometimes don’t clock out on purpose, and it costs you money.  Make sure you or your managers stay on top of this to avoid this.

Are you wasting money weekly on payroll costs that you could be putting to your bottom line?

If your payroll is over 25% (including taxes and benefits) of gross sales (before comps) try taking 30 minutes off half the staff’s scheduled shifts – so your 8 hour people you will reduce to working 7.5 hours, etc.  If your employees make on average $10.50/hr, on 40 employees this would save you $210 before taxes and benefits.  That is $840 a month on just the one change.

Do the math with me, let’s say you have an average price of $4.00 per appetizer.  If your bartenders service 60 tickets a night each, and if your bartenders were able to add on one appetizer to just half of those tickets, you would generate an additional $120.00 per bartender.  Let’s assume you had 5 bartenders on for the night – that would add an additional $600 per night to your sales.