Olive Garden to boost average tipped wage to keep staff

Olive Garden’s parent company is raising pay to hold onto its workers as bars and restaurants across the country embark on a hiring spree ahead of the pandemic’s final phase.

Starting next week, Darden Restaurants said every hourly worker at its restaurants will earn at least $10 per hour, which includes tips, increasing to $11 an hour in January 2022 and $12 an hour in January 2023. The Orlando, Florida-based company also announced on Thursday a one-time bonus payment for hourly workers, representing a $17 million outlay for Darden.

“Continuing to attract and retain the best talent in the industry will be critical to our success, and this commitment further solidifies our position as the employer of choice in full-service dining,” Gene Lee, chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement as the company reported third-quarter earnings that beat estimates.

Darden plans to boost its tipped minimum wage -which federally has sat unbudged at $2.13 an hour since 1991 despite increases in the regular minimum wage -at a time when labor is getting tighter for the recovering restaurant industry. Bars and restaurants across the country added almost 300,000 jobs last month, marking the first major increase in four months, according to Labor Department data. As Americans get vaccinated and economies reopen, restaurants want to be staffed well enough to meet that recovering demand.