Perks of Work: Keeping Food and Beverage Staffers Happy

Time for Perks of Work, our weekly recap of intriguing data, surveys, and trends about the 21^st century workplace.

Fascinated by all things 401(k)? Is open enrollment season your favorite time of year? Check this space every Friday to keep up with the latest water cooler talk.

Money Isn’t Everything

Cash may be king to investment types but it’s not the key ingredient to a productive workplace. That’s what industry publication Food Processing discovered after checking in with the food and beverage community for its latest salary and job satisfaction survey.

While the average salary and median salary of the nearly 400 respondents flip-flopped over the past two years by roughly $3,000 (dropping in the case of average salaries; rising on the median side), employees said they crave something beyond fatter paychecks—fulfilling responsibilities.

“Challenging work” tied with “salary and benefits” for what food and beverage personnel want most this year. Demand for those criteria jumped by 26 percentage points since 2017, the greatest gain overall. “Job security” was the next big wish list item (up 19 percentage points), followed by general “appreciation” (up 17 points), and fostering a “safe work environment” (up 12 points).

Those updated desires dovetail with a significant drop in the most enthusiastic workers. Support in the “very satisfied” camp plunged by over 50 percent, losing 20 points over the past 12 months. The sudden retreat was partially offset by an uptick among the “somewhat satisfied” camp, which rose 16 points since last year.

Morale killers included “bad management,” “low job security,” “extreme demands by upper management,” and bosses who are “very bad at communication.”

Retirement Plan Shuffle

More than half of the employers polled by LIMRA’s Secure Retirement Institute would cancel their 401(k) plans and shift workers into state-run programs if they could.

The survey of 571 “decision-makers” showed that 32 percent of the business executives contacted are “very” interested in handing off retirement planning to local government, with another 28 percent falling into the “somewhat” interested camp.

An American Retirement Association breakdown of the report lists the top reasons employers offered for ceding control as: freeing up resources and reducing administrative burden (88 percent each), reducing oversight burden (87 percent), and limiting fiduciary responsibility (86 percent).

A third of survey respondents predicted employee participation would increase post-migration, while nearly 40 percent predicted that plan participation would stay the same. Roughly 15 percent said participation would suffer because of the change.

Paid Holidays

Who received a fully funded breather this past Veterans Day? Nearly 90 percent of government workers by the Pacific Coast, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The federal agency crunched the numbers on paid holidays as part of its National Compensation Survey. It rolls out its findings each time another potential day off for American workers pops up. Its deep dive into Veterans Day showed state and local government employees in the West as the top beneficiaries (87 percent) of the paid holiday. State and local government employees in the Northeast were a close second (81 percent).

Other constituencies most likely to get some R&R include state and local government employees dealing with natural resources, construction, and maintenance (82 percent), as well as union laborers (80 percent). While 70 percent of state and local government employees likely got the patriotic event off, less than one-fifth of civilian workers and roughly one-tenth of private sector staff received this particular holiday leave.

Next up for the bureau: Thanksgiving—perhaps one of the most demanding days for hospitality workers and retail staff.

Hungry for more? Send any tips, polls, or story pitches to wrojas@bloomberglaw.com.