Jonathan Horowitz - President, Houston Hospitality Alliance Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Six, twenty three is our time here in Houston's More News.
Jonathan Horwitz is with this, president of the Houston Hospitality Alliance.
I don't know if either one of these bills pass, Jonathan,
but just for the sake of argument here, if Texas
were to raise the minimum wage to either fifteen dollars
or sixteen or seventeen or eighteen or nineteen dollars an hour,
what does that potentially do to the hospitality industry in

(00:21):
this state.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, good morning. It's it would certainly be very difficult
for restaurants to absorb that great a jump in minimum wage.
And you know, frankly, from my perspective, it's actually not
necessary because the market forces have already driven wages higher
than that. We know, nationally and locally, the tips wage

(00:47):
for restaurant servers averages more than twenty five dollars an hour,
so we're already there, and with some of the shortages
we've seen, particularly in labor since the pandemic, are much
higher than that already. You know, you dishwashers starting out
in restaurants are often making twelve, fourteen, fifteen dollars an

(01:09):
hour just to start, because that's what the market has
created in the restaurant industry.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Okay, well, then let me play devil's advocate. If they're
already spending fourteen or fifteen dollars an hour, does it
make sense to just go ahead and raise them in
the waves to fourteen or fifteen dollars an hour.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Well, you've got to think also of some of the
other implications of that for other businesses. That may be
the case in the restaurant in the industry right now,
but it's not the case for every single restaurant. It's
not the case for other small businesses that would be
impacted by such a great move and such a large
jump all at once. You know, you have to balance

(01:47):
the market forces with reality. Obviously, everybody wants a living waves,
you want to be able to support a family, et cetera.
But you also have to be cognizant of what the
market will bear. For restaurants, in particular, when things like
that happen. When changes like that happen, the only recourse
they have is to raise menu prices. Sure, and we've

(02:09):
seen that, we've seen that since the pandemic. But you
can only go so far, and at some point the
consumer is just going to say no, I'm not going
to pay thirty five dollars for a hamburger, you know
something like that, right, And that's where you see a
tipping point. And that's where things start to crumble.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
And that sounds like where you're concerned that we are
very close to the tipping point. Certainly, restaurant prices have
gotten very expensive and a lot of folks have changed
their eating habits as a result. But let me mention
this as well. We had a minimum wage hike in
two thousand and seven from five to fifteen to five
eighty five, another one in two thousand and eight to
six fifty five, another one in two thousand and nine
to seven twenty five. We have not had a minimum

(02:46):
wage increase since two thousand and nine. Is it time
for some sort of an increase? Maybe it's not even
ten dollars an hour or fifteen dollars an hour, but
is it time? Is it time for something?

Speaker 2 (02:57):
I think it's reasonable to I know we've seen this
with inflation. I think we've it's reasonable to assume that
you should see a gradual progression that keeps up with
the times. I think that's an ordinary course of things.
So it's been a while it's still pretty low. We
could see a gradual increase and the market would absorb that.

(03:17):
You'd have time to adjust to it, and the consumer
would have time to adjust to it, et cetera. But
if you go from currently seven twenty five to fifteen
or nineteen, that's a massive jump all at once. I
think what you'll see is some sort of potential compromise
over time, where there's a more gradual increase which keeps
up with just the regular economic situation as it continues

(03:41):
to go forward.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Right, Jonathan, thanks for coming on. Appreciate it. As president
of the Houston Hospitality Alliance. Jonathan Horwitz, it's six twenty seven,