Deli Chain Owner Pays His Employees Above Minimium Wage, Offers Health and Dental Bennies, Paid Time [View all]

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[font size=lg]Off, and Retirement Plans.[/font]


Paul Saginaw, co-founder of Zingerman's Deli in Michigan, pays his 630 employees up to $21/hour, offers health and dental benefits to all workers, provides paid time off, and 401k retirement plans. This week, Mr. Saginaw is in Washington lobbying Congress and the restaurant industry to raise wages for all workers!

A New Direction for Restaurant Workers? Zingerman’s and the “Thriveable Wage”


Zingerman's Deli is located on Detroit Street in downtown Ann Arbor

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"In light of the industry’s powerful lobbying to keep wages low, it is rare to find restaurants—or corporations generally—driven by a desire to improve their employees’ overall living wage and wellness, rather than how the market can make them richer. Enter Zingerman’s Community of Businesses (Zingerman’s), made up of 18 partners and several different enterprises including a restaurant called Zingerman’s Roadhouse. Based in Michigan, Zingerman’s partners are known for having built their enterprises based on how they can “enhance the lives of as many people as [they] possibly can.”

In practice this means offering all their employees—part time and full time—health and dental benefits, and paid time off. After they work at Zingerman’s for a year, employees are eligible for 401(k)s.

Tabitha Mason, who built her career in the restaurant industry, is the manager of Zingerman’s Roadhouse. “Early in my career at a different restaurant, I probably made $20,000 per year. That was a more traditional restaurant, where servers were viewed as disposable,” Mason told RH Reality Check. “And previous restaurants I worked at would try hard to restrict who could receive benefits—like it was an exclusive club.”..

Read the rest..
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/03/04/a-new-direction-for-restaurant-workers-zingermans-and-the-thriveable-wage/


Zingerman's owner travels to Washington, D.C., to lobby for increased minimum wage

"Paul Saginaw, the co-owner of Zingerman’s Delicatessen, displayed strong support for low-wage workers recently when he made a trek to Washington, D.C., to lobby for an increase in the minimum wage.

Saginaw joined business owners from Colorado, New York, Maryland and Washington, D.C., to lobby U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez. The business owners talked about the positive impacts of paying employees a higher wage than the government minimum of $7.25 per hour.

“We’ve grown since opening Zingerman’s Delicatessen almost 32 years ago to eight businesses in Ann Arbor employing 625 permanent staff with revenues just under $50 million dollars,” Saginaw said in a Jan. 23 roundtable discussion with the other business owners.

“Paying entry wages our employees can live on has contributed to our profitability and our annual compounded growth rate of 10 percent. Raising the minimum wage is long overdue.”[/i]

More to the story..
http://www.mlive.com/business/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2014/01/zingermans_owner_travels_to_wa.html

It can be done and businesses like Zingerman's are Living Proof!