Darden gives restaurant workers $17 million in bonuses
Orlando-based Darden Restaurants revealed Thursday it is paying $17 million in bonuses to hourly restaurant workers and planning to ensure that none of its staff make less than $10 per hour.
The owner of Olive Garden and other chain restaurants also reported total sales were $1.73 billion in the quarter ending Feb. 28, down 26.1% compared with that time a year ago, shortly before the full onset across the United States of the coronavirus pandemic. Still, net earnings from continuing operations were $129 million.
The company’s stock soared more than 8% to close at $144.90.
The bonuses are for nearly 90,000 employees, according to spokesman Rich Jeffers. They will be paid on April 2 and are based on the average weekly hours worked over the quarter, with a minimum of 10 hours per week, Jeffers said.
Darden also revealed that starting Monday it was committing to no hourly employee making less than $10 per hour, including income from tips. That figure is expected to increase to $11 in January 2022 and $12 in January 2023, according to a news release.
Hourly employees at Darden earn $17 per hour on average, according to the release.
In Florida, voters in November approved gradually raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026.
Jeffers said Monday’s increase will affect 20% of 135,000 hourly employees. However, 20,000 of those employees haven’t been able to get hours with capacity restraints as a reason why.
The 115,000 hourly employees able to work in a recent week compares to 165,000 active employees before the coronavirus pandemic, CEO Gene Lee said.
“That number’s increasing every week,” Lee said. “I think our greatest challenge right now is staffing. It’s staffing, trying to attract people to come to work. That’s why we’re strengthening our employment proposition which is already strong.”
Darden has more than 1,820 restaurants including Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Yard House, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, Bahama Breeze and Eddie V’s.
One Fair Wage president Saru Jayaraman released a statement Thursday calling Darden’s move “little more than a PR stunt.” Her organization filed an EEOC complaint last year arguing the federally permitted minimum wage for tipped employees leads to discrimination against people of color and women, allegations Darden said at the time it believes are “baseless.”
“If Darden were serious about making sure their employees were paid enough money to live on — they would raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour, and give the employees their tips on top of that pay,” Jayaraman’s statement said.