The shortage of personnel in the food and tourism sector is not only a problem for Italy, but also a problem for many European countries. But Switzerland has a backlog of applicants on their desks: Most people find it willing to work in bars and restaurants, despite grueling shifts, night hours, weekends and public holidays. How is this possible? There is only one answer to this: The salary of these workers is determined by the turnover of the company. And so a waiter at Lake Zurich can earn up to 16,500 Swiss Francs (more than 17,000 Euros) per month, excluding tips; That’s a salary that even a top executive would envy. Let’s try to understand better, but first of all, let’s explain why some find this solution suitable for both the worker and the entrepreneur, and whether the tourism boom can change the wages of seasonal workers in Italy.
Salaries proportional to turnover in Switzerland
If a waiter with a regular employment contract in Italy earns no less than 1,300 euros gross per month, he gets much more in Switzerland: 3,750 Swiss francs (almost 4 thousand euros), but the cost of living there is very high. higher. But in some clubs, salaries range from 8,000 to 12,000 Swiss francs (about 8,350 to 12,500 euros) per month, a record number that everyone is interested in, tips aside. This is also the case in the well-known Michel Péclard and Florian Weber restaurant chains (16 in total) beyond Gotthard, where wages of the workforce vary by turnover. More precisely, waiters and waitresses earn between 7 and 8% of monthly income excluding VAT, depending on the business.
Michel Péclard announced to a weekly newspaper published in Switzerland that the highest salary ever paid was 16,500 francs. Stating that this is an exception, the businessman reminded that we are witnessing a very positive period in terms of tourism. Of course, this is the highest figure ever received by a waiter in the world. But all things considered, the salary of a waiter at a restaurant on the shore of Lake Zurich far exceeds that of a graduate manager, making a job that has been underestimated by many recently very attractive.
How much does a waiter earn in Italy?
The situation in Italy is very different, especially for seasonal workers; Chiara Tadini, who has repeatedly described the nightmarish experiences of workers in these categories, also appears in surveys conducted by Today.it by Charlotte Matteini and Christian Donelli. To give an example, here is the photo taken on the coast of Romagna: 60 hour shifts per week, unpaid overtime and job offers up to 3 euros an hour, part of the pay in black. We’re talking about 800 euros per month for 10 hours of work, 14 hours on weekends. What about the day off? Not found.
What changes when basic income ends?
For some time now we have been witnessing the usual debates: seasonal workers denouncing prohibitive working conditions over slave wages; Continuing to attribute the lack of manpower to basic income, entrepreneurs argue that “young people no longer want to work” and “do not want to rise to the top”. But we are now at a turning point because the Meloni government has decided to end basic income. What will happen?
Possibly dishonest entrepreneurs will stop complaining because they will find someone who will be forced to accept starvation wages to ‘pass through’ (unless highly publicized and necessary checks on working conditions are triggered). But this is sad because few managers in Italy still understand how important the financial satisfaction of their employees is. But in May, Carlo Messina, CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo, announced his intention to introduce employee profit-sharing, after posting record profits. “I asked our internal staff to look into this possibility, I would see it well”. In short, this mentality is not common in Italy for now, but something is changing.
Employee profit sharing: why does it work?
In Italy, especially in the catering and tourism sector, we are still a long way from salaries commensurate with Swiss profits. But according to some experts, turnover-based salary is an advantage for everyone, let’s see why. It’s nothing new, the company is called profit sharing, it’s always been there, but it’s only thought for the top executives of companies, executives and senior executives. But what if it applied to all employees? This idea especially scares entrepreneurs, but according to experts, it is a solution that benefits both sides. Entrepreneurs do not have to bear an extra cost, while employees do their best to make the company profit. In fact, although personnel costs are high due to the strong increase in turnover, they are lower in percentage than before.
But in Switzerland, not everyone agrees. Péclard says, “We are already blamed for distorting the market,” while the unions are not against it, arguing that this model cannot be adopted in all areas because there are too many disadvantages. When it comes to food and beverage services and tourism, the benefits are quite obvious as staff are always in contact with the public and service is an essential part of customer satisfaction. Turnover is increasing with more smiles and presence from waiters, and it also provides an indirect economic advantage to employees in a self-sustaining spiral. “Our employees – comment Michel Péclard – work as if the company does not belong to us, but to them”, this is the real secret of the success of the measure, which solves all the problems caused by the entrepreneur’s shortage of personnel.
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Source: Today IT
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
