Taco Bell Is Going To Start Paying General Managers $100K A Year
Bloomberg reports that the corporation behind Taco Bell, Yum! Brands Inc., is going to start testing $100,000 salaries for general managers at “select restaurants in the U.S. Midwest and Northeast.” So if you’re a classist asshole and think you’re above someone working fast-food, know that they can probably now afford Disney+, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO Now, CBS All-Access AND Netflix unlike you!
Taco Bell is figuring that actually paying employees a decent salary might cut down on turnover. It’s taken the fast-food industry almost 100 years (White Castle opened in 1921) to realize this?
Amid an increasingly tough U.S. labor market, the company is betting a higher salary will help it attract workers and keep them on the team.
The unemployment rate hit a record low of 3.5% in the U.S. in November, which is the lowest it’s been since 1969 and there’s why your orange president isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. That’s also the reason why the fast-food industry is finding it has to step up its pay game to be able to staff their stuffed chalupa dungeons.
It’s another example of how stubbornly low unemployment is changing the face of fast food, which for decades has been seen as the quintessential low-wage job. Restaurants including Olive Garden owner Darden Restaurants Inc. and Shake Shack Inc. have recently called out labor inflation that’s hurting margins.
Taco Bell will also reportedly be introducing a new role for employees who want leadership experience but don’t want the general manager gig. Current salaries for general managers at company-owned Taco Bell stores are between $50,000 and $80,000, according to the company.
If I can make a 100K working at Taco Bell, count me in. I’ve worked at Mickey D’s. Of course, I permanently scarred a fellow employee with a hot fry basket by accident, and I was once accused of providing McNuggets that weren’t fresh and one day I didn’t go into work and they never even called to see where I was and never did call me ever again and never even asked for the uniform back so I probably can’t put Mickey D’s on my resume.
Pic: Taco Bell