Overtime overhaul will harm restaurant employeeshttp://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/economy-budget/280483-overtime-overhaul-will-harm-restaurant-employeesImagine this: You find your first job bussing tables at a local restaurant for an hourly wage. You work hard, you learn valuable skills so you get promoted, first to a server position, and then to be a manager. That management position comes with a salary and benefits, a milestone in your career.
Suddenly, though, your boss tells you that despite your hard work and commitment to your job, you're going to become an hourly employee again, and you lose the salary and benefits that you worked so hard to get.
This is not some hypothetical for Octavio Mantilla or for millions of restaurant employees across the country. Octavio came to New Orleans from Nicaragua as a child. He joined the restaurant industry at 16 years old as a dishwasher, and later waited tables. While working in the industry, he earned a bachelor's degree from Tulane University and an M.B.A. from the University of New Orleans.
Now, he is the co-owner of Louisiana-based Besh Restaurant Group. His success story is not unique. More than 80 percent of restaurant owners and 97 percent of restaurant managers start their careers in non-managerial positions and move up with new, performance-based incentives. And it is exactly the kind of success story that will be jeopardized by the new overtime rule...