New Mexico restaurants starting to offer benefits to employees
(The Center Square) – Restaurants in New Mexico are now starting to offer benefits to employees in an attempt to compete in the labor market.
The restaurant industry hasn’t been known to offer benefits traditionally, Carol Wight, president of the New Mexico Restaurant Association, said, but in order to remain competitive something had to change.
“We were able to negotiate some – we think they’re very good benefits for our employees or the employees in the industry,” she told The Center Square.
These benefits are what Wight called “add-ons” and include Teledoc Health, an on-demand phone consultation service for health and mental health needs, supplementary insurance through Aflac, scholarships and a variety of discounts.
Increasing wages in order to attract workers can get very expensive very quickly, Wight said.
“A lot of folks are not necessarily looking for that dollar, they’re looking for somebody that has benefits that they can take advantage of,” she said.
The offering of benefits the NMRA has negotiated is in part a response to New Mexican restaurants asking for help.
“I got an email from a member and he showed me a poster that was up in a local McDonalds, and it said if you come here you’ll make this much money – which I think was $11.25 an hour – plus you can get these discounts at these stores, plus you can get a scholarship, plus you can get these other benefits. And he said, ‘How can I compete with this? I’m just one guy,’” Wight said.
In the future, an increasing number of jobs in the restaurant industry may come with benefits, she said.
As far as this trend developing into better benefits like full health insurance being offered, Wight said they’ll have to see how these go first.
“There’s a cost/benefit analysis that I think restaurants have to do – they have to know that they can afford these benefits and still sell their food at a price people are willing to pay for,” she said.
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