Re:“” Sept. 15 Scott Klinger column.
This opinion piece does not paint the true picture of the restaurant industry or my company, Darden Restaurants.
We understand that being a large, high-profile organization makes us an easy target for mistruths and narrow storytelling, especially with continuing levels of unemployment and stagnant hiring trends in other sectors of the American economy. However, any accusations that we do not pay employees fairly are completely false. We take these allegations seriously, and view these rumors as being detrimental to the employees who we are working so hard to help achieve their personal and professional dreams.
For starters, no one makes $2.13 an hour. It is a popular exaggeration and terribly misleading. Across all eight of our restaurant concepts, the average income for hourly employees ranges from $13 to $21 per hour. On top of that, many of our employees — including servers, bartenders and certain culinary positions — make even more. The hourly income of our bussers, often an entry-level job, is more than $11 an hour. That is well above the federal minimum wage of $7.25.
Opportunities with our company extend far beyond hourly jobs. We have more than 8,000 leadership positions in our restaurants, and we pride ourselves on rewarding individuals from within.
More than 50 percent of our restaurant managers are promoted from hourly ranks and nearly 100 percent of our general managers/managing partners are internal promotions.
All our recent employee surveys — conducted through a third party — show that our overall employee engagement score significantly outpaces our industry. I am also proud that we have been named to the Fortune list of “100 Best Companies to Work For” three years in a row.
We understand we are not perfect — and we are always looking to get better. Our critics should make an effort to learn the entire story instead of simply bending numbers and using half-truths.
Samir Gupte is senior vice president of culture at Darden Restaurants, based in Orlando, Fla. McClatchy-Tribune News Service distributed this essay.
