What Happens When You Raise The Minimum Wage: Chef Shares How This Decision Changed His Business Completely

Having traveled the US and resided in many states such as California, Alaska, and Florida, Kevin Roberts has experienced a vast variety of ingredients and diets that helped him along his journey as a professional chef for nearly 10 years.

In 2016, Kevin opened a new chapter in his life and founded FitChef. The small business started cooking for a handful of clients and at the beginning, it was barely delivering 40 meals a week. But attention to detail and the flavor profiles of a seasoned pro have helped it expand.

A few weeks ago, Kevin decided that his company has outgrown Mississippi’s minimum wage rate.

Mississippi’s minimum wage rate is $7.25 per hour

What Happens When You Raise The Minimum Wage: Chef Shares How This Decision Changed His Business Completely

Image credits: Kevin Roberts

But Kevin Roberts, the owner of a meal prep company called FitChef, thought it wasn’t enough

What Happens When You Raise The Minimum Wage: Chef Shares How This Decision Changed His Business Completely

Frederick Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory points out that essentials such as a decent wage and civil working conditions are simply “hygiene” factors that keep employees from being dissatisfied.

According to J.D. Conway, the Head of Talent Acquisition at BambooHR, even though Herzberg’s theory may be slightly dated and have its limitations, it still provides insight for business leaders looking to strengthen their organization’s offerings.

Herzberg thought that employee satisfaction depends on two aspects: hygiene issues and motivators. Although hygiene issues are not the source of satisfaction, he said, they must be dealt with first to create an environment in which employee satisfaction and motivation are even possible.

What Happens When You Raise The Minimum Wage: Chef Shares How This Decision Changed His Business Completely

Herzberg’s hygiene issues are the following: company and administrative policies, supervision, salary, interpersonal relations, and working conditions.

From the looks of this post, Herzberg would probably be pleased to see the direction where FitChef is going.

According to new research of more than 600 US businesses with 50-500 employees, 63.3% of companies say retaining employees is actually harder than hiring them. FitChef is a great example of how to address this.

Here’s how people reacted to Kevin’s honest Facebook post

What Happens When You Raise The Minimum Wage: Chef Shares How This Decision Changed His Business Completely

Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

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I'm a Visual Editor at Bored Panda since 2017. I've searched through a multitude of images to create over 2000 diverse posts on a wide range of topics. I love memes, funny, and cute stuff, but I'm also into social issues topics. Despite my background in communication, my heart belongs to visual media, especially photography. When I'm not at my desk, you're likely to find me in the streets with my camera, checking out cool exhibitions, watching a movie at the cinema or just chilling with a coffee in a cozy place

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What do you think ?

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KatHat 3 years ago

Over and over again, this is proven to be true. Pay people properly, treat them properly, everyone wins. But other employers look at these examples, and then go back to shafting employees and whinging that "no one wants to work". Why is it so often hard for humans to learn from examples?!

35points

Anna Repp 3 years ago

IKR! Happy employees mean successful businesses, but way too many corporations like to go the Amazon way - squeeze them dry in a few months and replace with desperate newcomers without giving the original employees a raise or a promotion :(

0points

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Kathryn Baylis 3 years ago (edited)

Amazing how much a little fairness and kindness can transform an employee’s outlook and attitude. Being authoritarian (iron fist) only breeds resentment which, at work, means “f**k you, boss” attitudes, subpar performance, and lots of really bad word of mouth from past and present employees, which could mean a potential decrease in business. Being authoritative (compassionate heart) makes people actually want to do their best for you, which makes the workplace a much better, and maybe even a fun, place—-definitely THE place to work in your area, as the abundance of applications shows. Couple old sayings come to mind. “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar”, and “You get what you pay for”. Replacing the iron fist with a compassionate heart makes employees feel less like slaves (yeah I know, Mississippi, but you get my point), and paying them a fair wage plus benefits and perks makes them feel appreciated. This needs to become universal.

7points