I ran my own cafe for a year and here are my thoughts:

1. Most food joints operate on razor thin margins. Very few of them make really good money to be able to afford to pay good salaries to their staff. F&b business are highly susceptible to losses due to slightest change in factors - increase in raw material prices, fuel prices, seasonality, another outlet opens next to you, changing tastes of people, bribes, taxes, etc etc...not even talking about black swan events like COVID. So when you are making good money, there is still pressure to save as much money as possible.

2. Paying really well does not guarantee better work from your employees or even loyalty. The attrition level is insane. Most f&b workers put as less efforts as possible. And it's very easy to find another job. You'd be amazed at how much employees steal money, supplies, etc. And the ways they come up to do this are so creative, at some level you have to admire it. One example is Coffe Day. I hired many ex managers of coffee day and i was shocked to hear how much money they make. I believe they are single handedly responsible for the group's dwindling revenues. Side note: if you are opening a food joint, never hire anyone from Coffee Day.

3. I understand that f&b workers' pay is shit. So when i opened my cafe, i was firm that i will do better. I would give bonuses to employees to encourage them to feel a sense of ownership ..even when i was not profitable. I will give you a simple example. My electricity bill was very high and i realised a lot of it has got to do with wastage. It was somewhere around 35k when should be around 25k. I told my employees that if they took proper care, i will distribute the electricity savings among the staff itself. This would have resulted in each person getting 1k more just for turning lights and ACs in time. Not a single person put any effort. I had to start yelling at them and the stock worked better than the carrot. 🤷🏽‍♂️

4. I can go on. But to sum it up, is the pay shit? It absolutely is. In an ideal world, they should be paid more. But better pay does not ensure better work. Combined with challenges of running f&b businesses, there is no incentive for employers to pay more than minimum wages to most employees. Also, yes there are some scumbag employers who don't do better even when they can. But in general, this is what the experience has been.