Our study is focused on the restaurant work force in Kirksville, Missouri. We conducted interviews with chain and local restaurant owners or managers from around the area to gather data and information regarding the work force in Kirksville. We are doing research so we can compare and contrast the benefits, wages, and skills associated with food chains versus local restaurants. Questions regarding benefits, sick days, wages, hours, and skills needed will be asked. All the restaurants that were interviewed will be examined below.

Dukum Inn:

The Dukum Inn is a locally run restaurant and bar in the middle of Kirksville Square. This restaurant employs a majority of college students, although there are a few full-time out of college employees. The total amount of employees is around 40. They prefer waitresses who have no experience, so they can be trained the way the manager prefers. College students and part time workers usually only work 3 days a week, while full time employees work 5. The turn over rate is quite frequent, due to the number of college students working there. The manager prefers at least a 2 year commitment. The wage for waiters and waitresses is $4.00 an hour, plus tips. The other employees make a starting wage of minimum wage. If the the waiters and waitresses don’t make enough in tips to reach at least minimum wage, then Dukum will pay them minimum wage. Raises are rewarded starting at $1 an hour. They do not offer any benefits due to the small nature of the business. There is liberal time off policy, the employes just have to tell the manager 1-2 weeks in advance.

Regarding the change in minimum wage, Dukum Inn acknowledges they will have to start adjusting their wages within the first year, so they can stay ahead of the curve. The manager has seen change in the workforce in Kirksville within the past 5 years, but considers Dukum lucky for having quality student workers.

Sodexo:

Sodexo is the on-campus dining provider for Truman State University. Workers are often started with minimum wage pay, but have opportunity for advancement at the beginning of each year. There are 126 student workers, 58 part time workers, 94 full-time workers, and 14 salary managers. There has been a lot of turnover since new businesses have been opening up in Kirksville, and students have been testing out other jobs. The hours a week worked is determined by the type of employee, students work around 2-15 hours a week. Benefits differ over time based on hourly and salary wages, and are reexamined at 5, 10, and 15 years. Workers are offered benefits that include: vacation time, medical, dental, 401K, physical health and mental health, corporate resources, and employee discounts. Vacation days are accumulated, but time off is based on business need, so employees usually get time off during school breaks. No type of education is required for this job, but when handling food, employees are required to go through the servsafe program and get their food handler license.

Regarding the change in minimum wage, Sodexo is prepared to gradually start raising worker raises, so people who have been working there longer will also get paid more. Everyone will be paid more, at the same progression. Unfortunately the manager has only been in Kirksville for 1.5 years, so has not seen extreme differences in the workforce.

Caffiend Fix:

Caffiend Fix is a small locally owned coffee shop near downtown Kirksville. They are a fairly new establishment that has only been open for about five months.The starting wage for employees is 8 dollars an hour plus tips. Since they are a new company, they only have 4 employees. The hours per week are completely dependent on the availability of the employee. Since they are open 24/7 there are many different options for shifts. Starting in January of the new year, Caffiend Fix will be able to offer insurance benefits to their employees. Time off is preferred to be given 2 weeks in advance, but the owner said that he is very flexible with scheduling. There is no education that is required for this job, it was just stressed that employees need to be trainable and willing to work.

McDonald’s:

McDonald’s is a world-wide fast food chain that has two locations in Kirksville. Upon hiring, employees make 9 dollars an hour. The hours worked per week is truly dependent on what the person wants or needs. The average amount of hours worked per week is around 30 hours. The time off policy is very flexible, especially for students, and full-time employees get two days off a week. Healthcare and scholarship benefits are offered to employees. Raises are given out when seen fit, based mostly on doing your job well. The benefits of staying with this company are raises, scholarship opportunities, and things like making an extra one hundred dollars for working on holidays. Education isn’t something that is required for this job, they are the only company that hires fifteen year olds in Kirksville, so they have a vast majority of education levels. The skills needed for this job include a good work ethic, being dependable, and being on time. The north McDonald’s employs around 55-60 employees, with 20 of those employees being students. The south McDonald’s employs around 50 employees, with 20 of those being students as well. The turnover rate for this company is not an issue due to the great benefits of the job. Regarding the change in minimum wage, McDonald’s is glad to see the change and believes that their employees are deserving of a higher wage. It was stressed that McDonald’s is a very progressive company, and flexible to any changes.

Burger King:

Burger King is a world-wide fast food chain with one location in Kirksville. They start out their employees with a wage of 8 dollars an hour. The average working hours is about 20-30 hours a week. The time off policy at Burger King is employees have to request time off in advance. Burger King does not offer any benefits to its employees, but they give raises once a year. There is no education that is required for this job, only on the job training. They employ about 40-50 people, with 20 of them being either high school or college students.

Ruby Tuesdays:

Ruby Tuesdays is a national chain that offers reasonably priced American food to consumers. This chain has been around for along time, and has established quite a name for themselves. Ruby Tuesdays offers various jobs that require almost no skills except dependability and hard work. Their pay ranges from $3.65 for waitresses and bartenders who get tipped out, all the way up to $11.50 for cooks. Every skill needed for the job is taught within the facility. Kirksville’s specific Ruby Tuesdays location, primarily hires college students with approximately 3/4th of their staff being students. The majority of these employees work part-time receiving no benefits except time off when needed. Infact, this Ruby Tuesday doesn’t allow any of it’s entry level employees go overtime so that so that they don’t need to offer benefits. The only requirements of employees is that they’re above 18 and eager and willing to work. Because so much of the staff is college students they experience a high turnover rate with the average employee not staying for more than two years.  

Bonzai:

Bonzai is a small local restaurant nestled between the unique storefronts of Kirksville’s town square. Like most small restaurants here they employ between five to ten students and start them with minimum wage. Contrary to most businesses Bonzai gives it employees regular raises over time to incentivize staying with their establishment overtime although they don’t present their workers with any benefits like insurance or sick pay. Since all their employees are students they don’t pressure them to work too much, instead only requiring them to put in at least ten hours a week. Any skill needed for this job is taught on sight and whether it is cleaning, rolling sushi, using the fryer, or taking orders, every employee will leave with a multitude of new found skills. Because the majority of their workers are students, the average employment doesn’t last longer than two years. Students refer to the wages they receive from this job as their spending money, not something they need to rely on.

Gyro Corner:

The Gyro Corner was unlike the majority of the restaurants we interviewed. The interesting fact about this restaurant is completely family ran and owned. The only employ they have is one college students who comes on a weekly basis to deep clean the kitchen and facility. Currently they pay their employee eight dollars which is above minimum wage, but when asked about the raise in minimum wage coming in January they anticipated that they would be able to meet the requirement, but not go above. Other than that, every employee is part of the family and works overtime to keep the business afloat. They are expected to contribute to every part of owning a business whether that be cleaning, cooking, taking orders, making sure shipments arrive on time and more. On average they reported working 12 hour days, and receiving breaks only for holidays and family emergencies. One thing I discussed with them was how the workforce has changed in Kirksville within the past couple of years. They’ve noticed a lot more businesses coming to town, including competing restaurants. Because of this it’s a lot harder for them to find employees who are willing to meet the work demands of this job.

Conclusion/Discussion:

Most of the restaurants pay minimum wage, which leads to little competition within the area. The lack of higher pay can be a result of low competition or inability to pay a higher wage. The bigger chain corporations like Sodexo, McDonald’s and Ruby Tuesday’s, are able to give their employee benefits that the smaller, local restaurants can not. So, from the point of view of a job candidate, the bigger chain corporations would be more appealing to work at, because they offer better benefits and allow for potential raises. Although, due to the large student population, corporations can exploit college students for their work by making them work part time, so they do not have to offer benefits.
A lot of the businesses were not able to interview with us, because they either did not have time due to low staffing, or they were unwilling to discuss topics that were brought up in the questioning. Due to these factors, our sample may not be the most representative of the Kirksville area. However, we are confident that this sample size still holds significant value in studying the food service industry here in Kirksville. It’s also worth noting that Kirksville is a small area, and the amount of business each restaurant gets could significantly impact the amount an employee gets paid, as well as if and what benefits that employee receives. Therefore, the data we see may not be representative of the food service industry as a whole, just specifically Kirksville.