Pay Scale

I look at our pay scale at Ninth Street and continually hope to add on new customers because with new wholesale customers, we can pay our employees more. My goal is that everyone in skilled baking or cafe positions make $14.00/hr. We are closer to that now then when I took over the Bakery in 2013. But I still look at the disparity in pay across industries and wonder how it is that some folks can make more than three times what others make and we are all working full time.

This was brought into high relief for me when I worked for Duke for a short time before owning the Bakery. I worked in a Division with physician leaders and spoke with one about how entry level physician pay at a community clinic might be $150K, which was more than three times what I was making as a research analyst (and I thought I was doing quite well!). It makes sense that physicians should be paid more than analysts, but for that multiplier to be 3x made me think that it's strange that we pay the same price for goods and services. If we go out for hamburgers, we might pay the same price, but for the physician, that hamburger is effectively a third as expensive (it puts one third the dent in his disposable income).

Without a robust safety net for folks on the bottom of the stratification ladder, it makes no sense to me that pay should be as stratified as it is. I understand we exist in a free market where supply meets demand, but for the economics to dictate that some jobs to pay so little, while other pay so much is indefensible. I would love for the food service living wage to be $42.00/hr instead of $14.00, but the economics of this business do not allow for that. Until we have a redistribution of income and universal access to basic services such as higher education, technical training, health care, transportation, and so forth, there is no way we can live guilt-free in a society obsessed with foodie-ism, fancy beers, and Snapchat.

Stats: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_class_in_the_United_States