Fifth in a series. 

Re: “A Plea to Exclude Waiters and Waitresses” 

Alan Shulman, restaurateur, offered what sounded like an extraordinary calculation even in the new universe of a forthcoming $15 hourly minimum wage.

He already has said that, because of their tips, waiters and waitresses should be excluded from the new law that takes effect in 12 months and two weeks. He identifies two reasons, first because they would benefit excessively/unfairly, and second because “they are not even asking for a raise.”

Now Mr. Shulman, who operates Akasha and now Sambar in Downtown, elaborates, with confidence.

“Given the choice,” he said, “they would sign a waiver.

“If you said to the front-of-the-house employees – the bussers, runners, servers, hostesses, the whole front, not the kitchen – if you put a waiver in front of them to sign, waiving the increase vs. losing the tips, a hundred percent of them would sign the waivers.”

One of the strongest reasons Mr. Shulman is upset by the Los Angeles City Council’s ordinance, signed last Saturday by Mayor Garcetti, is that once exclusion of waiters and waitresses was pondered before being vanquished.

“They took it away,” he said. “They said total compensation is not an option. Just took it off the table.”

(To be continued)