Restaurant jobs have a reputation as some of the most low-paying, stressful, and physically demanding work that someone can do. With few days off, no benefits, and no retirement options to fall back on, the industry has been a traditionally inhospitable place to build a career or a life outside of work. Ryan Viator and Sean Weeks, co-owners of the Hudson Valley-based chain Buns Burgers, are trying to change that.
When the two decided to open the first location of their locally sourced burger joint in Rhinebeck in 2016, the long-time restaurant industry veterans set out to do business a little bit differently. “We always said that we tried to create the anti-restaurant restaurant,” Viator says. “To really try to make it more like a regular nine-to-five business where people do take vacations, they have time off, they do call out sick, and it’s not the end of the world.”
Their approach to creating a restaurant where employees’ needs are centered in the structure of the business itself is what has helped Viator and Weeks grow Buns Burgers from a single establishment to a thriving restaurant group with four locations throughout the Hudson Valley and a full-service Louisiana-influenced restaurant, Barbue, in Poughkeepsie, opening in June.
Prioritizing a Fair Wage
Most front of the house restaurant workers in the US are paid the state minimum wage plus tips. When Viator began working in restaurants in college in Louisiana, minimum wage there was less than $3 an hour, and after taxes the majority of what he took home was tips.
In opening Buns Burgers, Viator and Weeks placed a high priority on ensuring that tips felt like a bonus on top of their employees’ base wages—not the wage itself. From the opening of their first store in 2016, they offered $15 to $18 an hour when New York minimum wage was only $9. “We tried to always be a little bit higher than what the industry norm was at the time, and we always tried to pay people a fair wage,” he says.
Building in Nine-to-Five Benefits
After New York began moving toward a $15 minimum wage, the two knew they weren’t in a place to increase their base wages without substantially increasing menu prices, which were already on the higher end for a fast-casual burger spot ($7.15 for a quarter-pound cheeseburger). Instead, they looked for ways to offer their employees meaningful incentives on top of their pay that would encourage long-term retention.
After opening their third location in Kingston, they began offering a Roth IRA program for employees who have been with the company for over a year, including a percentage contribution from the company. They also offer a contribution toward health insurance. In addition to the financial incentives, they offer paid time off, sick days, and all stores are closed on major holidays, like Memorial Day and the 4th of July.
“We never wanted to make somebody feel like they had to make a decision between their family or a day of work. We always wanted people to be able to say ‘I can take a day off’ and not feel guilty about it or not feel like they might lose their job because of it,” says Viator. “We really wanted people to invest in their lives and have a better personal life.”
Creating a Career Culture
Along with their emphasis on paying employees a better wage and offering benefits, Viator and Weeks have intentionally created a business where employees can turn their jobs into careers. Their staff of around 35 people is made up of part-time and full-time employees ranging from high school students who work on evenings and weekends to mid-career managers who have grown with the company since its start. “We’ve always tried to promote from within first if possible,” Viator says. “Most of our managers have been promoted up from within, and most of our managers are women.”
Their regional manager, Liz Cook, worked with Viator at Boitson’s in Kingston and joined the Buns Burgers team a year after its launch. She was the original manager of the second location in Saugerties, and when they began build-out of the newest store in Poughkeepsie, they created the regional manager role to provide a next step in Cook’s career. In addition to Cook, three other employees have been with the company for seven of its eight years, and eight employees have been there for more than three years. “We have grown and built relationships with those people and it really always made us feel good that people do stay around that long,” says Viator.
Long-term retention is not only rewarding for employees, but for the business as a whole. Restaurants have the highest employee turnover rate of any industry, and according to the Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell, on average, restaurant owners lose around $150,000 a year on the costs of turnover in lost productivity, recruiting, and retraining.
Rebalancing the Restaurant Equation
The shifts that Viator and Weeks have made in traditional restaurant culture at Buns Burgers have come with a significant financial weight. With the high cost of food and labor, the restaurant industry has always had razor-thin margins. Viator says that their stores have always had consistent business, which helps them plan long-term moves like expanding to a new location and offering benefits. “You have to really know your numbers, and not everybody’s good with numbers,” Viator says.
Numbers aside, he says that the decisions they have made to prioritize their employees is the result of building a commitment to better wages and incentives into their business plan from the start. Their employee-first mindset has translated into tangible benefits for their staff, higher retention, and a company culture that challenges the industry status quo—a model for other restaurant owners who want to do better by their employees. “You have to ask yourself, ‘How do you want to structure your business to make people want to work for you?’’ Viator says. “And sometimes you have to take a little bit less so that you can create a system that works for other people as well.”
