Lots of hours but little money. Many of the gastronomy jobs have a particular variant: despite the effort for a large number of hours worked, many employees receive the minimum or less than the minimum. But why does this happen?
According to the UTHGRA (Union of Workers, Hoteliers and Gastronomy of the Argentine Republic) there are several salary agreements in the different provinces with an increase every month due to inflation in the country. The entity also sets the salary price depending on the category of the place, if it is 3, 4 or 5 stars, and the position of the employee, if he/she is chef, assistant, manager or waiter.
But why, despite this, do many restaurants and bars charge less than the salary established by the UTHGRA? Why in some cases is even half of what was agreed by the entity charged? Is it a matter of lowering costs? Is it a labor exploitation issue?
From personal experience I attest that this really happens. In some restaurants they offered me 22,000 argentinian pesos (150 pounds) for 48 hours a week, in another they paid me 410 argentinian pesos (3 pounds) for a half day (which was 6 hours) and countless other cases.
The low payment added to the enormous number of working hours and the pressure from bosses to do more at all times of work, suggests that this is part of labor exploitation. It is something that unfortunately happens a lot in the field of gastronomy as in other sectors of society. Something that should not happen, especially knowing that some locals can earn around two hundred thousand pesos a day in sales of orders.
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