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A Nob Hill restaurant’s decision to not adhere to the city’s recent minimum wage increase elicited outrage from Albuquerque activists Tuesday morning.
About 75 people gathered in front of Route 66 Malt Shop to protest the restaurant owners, who continue to pay their employees the old minimum wage.
New Mexico Alliance for Retired Americans field consultant Terry Schleder said the owners are breaking the law by not providing pay increases to their employees.
“He’s making his workers work for low wages because he feels like he’s above the law,” he said. “He does not want to comply with the minimum wage. But we know that working for poverty wages is not the way to a healthy state or a healthy city.”
The minimum wage increase took effect in Albuquerque in January after the ballot measure passed with 66 percent of the vote in November. The increase changed the citywide minimum wage from $7.50 per hour to $8.50 per hour.
Schleder said the restaurant’s owners only want to help themselves, and that their actions will hurt Albuquerque’s economy.
“When we all make less, we all do worse,” he said. “This is a downward spiral. This guy is leading the race to the bottom. Devoting your efforts to the 1 percent does not help the 99 percent. That’s exactly what the owner is doing. He’s standing on the backs of his workers for the 1 percent.”
Ninfa Lara, a member of Organizers in the Land of Enchantment, said the restaurant should respect the wage increase. She said she called on Albuquerque mayor Richard Berry to intervene in the issue.
“They cook the food and they clean after us, and they deserve a better pay,” she said. “We also want the mayor to support the law and to push the law. We just want the law to be respected.”
KRQE reported Monday that the restaurant co-owner Eric Szeman “admittedly didn’t raise pay for his employees” even after the increase took effect. KRQE’s report stated that “an unhappy worker blasted his boss on TV for it.” Andrew Szeman, Eric Szeman’s son who volunteers at the restaurant, said the controversy started with Kevin O’Leary, the “unhappy worker” who complained to KRQE, that the restaurant did not pay him the new minimum wage.
Andrew said O’Leary, who was part of the wait staff, got mad after the owners decided to cut his hours because he neglected to serve four tables one day in January and those customers gave the restaurant a bad review online.
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Although the restaurant has not yet fired O’Leary, Andrew said his employment status is “in limbo.”
Andrew said that because the wait staff knew that the restaurant would be bankrupt if it increased salaries, they signed a contract in which they agreed to work for the old minimum wage.
According to a statement issued by the restaurant owners, Szeman said “it was (the employees) who proposed that they continue to work at the existing wage. It was not our idea, it was theirs.”
Andrew said the wait-staff employees are the only ones who signed this contract. He said the owners plan to provide pay raises at some point.
“We’re not ‘anti-giving them the pay raise,’” he said. “We’re not going to do it yet, because it’s February and it’s Lent. We’re a malt shop. Everyone gives up treats — they give us up for Lent. This isn’t the best time to provide a pay raise.”
Andrew said that the owners have felt the impact of slowed business.
“This has been the worst winter we have ever seen in the 18 years that we’ve been open,” he said. “I haven’t been taking paychecks in months because we want our employees to get paid and we want to keep the shop open.”
Although the owners are not following the law by not providing raises, Andrew said the restaurant does not face any legal repercussions. But he said the employees can still sue the restaurant in civil court regarding their wages.
Andrew said the protesters are being extreme and are misinformed about the issue.
“They’re a left-wing type of a group that is anti-business,” he said. “When they saw the workers are not getting paid what they deserve, they just rallied their Marxist ideology.”
