Kalamazoo Restaurant Closes Due To Staffing Shortage

You have heard about the government-induced staffing shortage affecting cities and states around the country.  It has now affected a restaurant and bar in Kalamazoo.  MLive is reporting that Kalamazoo’s Central City Tap House is closing its doors for now due to a staffing shortage problem.

Most employers and business groups in Michigan and around the country have been telling their state legislatures, Governors, the Federal Government and the Biden that the additional $300 a week that they are paying people on unemployment is harming their businesses.

The Tap House wrote the following on their Facebook account last week:

“Hello All! Central City Tap House will be "taking a break" from the hustle and bustle in our industry until we can find a full enough roster in our kitchen to re-open to our customers. We appreciate the continued support throughout the after-effects of the pandemic…If you - or someone you know - is seeking out employment in the hospitality industry - specifically in the kitchen at the downtown Tap House, please go to…”

The Tap House is part of the Millennium Restaurant Group.  An operating partner, Shelly Pastor stated:

“We have every intention of reopening…It’s just a matter of finding enough qualified team members and having the opportunity to get them trained appropriately.”

Luckily their current employees will not be harmed and will have the opportunity to be employed by other Millennium restaurants in the area.

Shelly Pastor went on to say:

“The decision wasn’t made out of defeat…We could have muddled through a bit longer, but at what cost? Certainly not by providing the service we wanted to provide. We were just trying to be smart about our decision making and trying to be conservative and still not give up, and pivot and adapt…We’ve never experienced anything like this in all our years of doing business but we’re not alone. It’s real. The issues are real. They’re not made up.”

According to the article “starting wages for kitchen staff are now $14 an hour with those with higher skill sets getting hired in at a higher wage”.

The problem is with the additional $300 Federal unemployment benefits a week a person can make $662.00 a week sitting at home.  That equates to $16.55 per hour in which they did not have to pay federal or payroll taxes on in the past.  If that were to continue that could bump up the hourly rate to over $19 an hour or more to sleep in and when they do wake up do whatever you want to do that day.

There needs to be an incentive to get people back to work, paying them to sit at home in some cases is not helpful to them or our economy.