A restaurant owner is defending the hospitality industry after a Government Minister suggested poor pay and working conditions were to blame for severe staffing shortages.
Cafes and restaurants around the country are being forced to reduce their hours or close entirely as the sector struggles to find workers. It's not the only industry struggling, staffing shortages are hitting across the board including in healthcare, agriculture and many more.
Despite the staffing issues affecting several industries and an extremely low unemployment rate of 3.2 percent, Immigration Minister Michael Wood suggested working conditions might be to blame for hospitality’s struggles.
"Employers in sectors that continue to pay low wages with insecure working conditions also need to consider what changes they will make to be genuinely attractive places to work," Wood said when asked about chronic labour shortages.
Matt McLaughlin, who owns three bars in Wellington, told AM's Ryan Bridge it's disappointing to see the Minister's response.
"We've been pivoting the whole time COVID has been around. People in hospitality work in hospitality because it's a fun, vibrant industry to be in. It's an industry where you can be adaptable. People want to be able to work for six months and move on and work somewhere else," McLaughlin said.
"It is an attractive industry to be in. A lot of young people now, they're looking at wellness, they're looking at culture - all of those things. We work really hard in our industry and the pay rates have gone up. We're looking at about $24 average wage in hospitality across the sector and Queenstown, I'm told it's $26. So, you know, these things are moving. But there's no magic wand for us to be able to wave and say all of a sudden our industry is so much better to come and work in. It's just disappointing to hear that kind of attitude."
He said while pay rates have risen, employers can only shoulder so many costs and they're currently facing them from all directions.
"When you look at all the other costs that have gone up as well... alcohol excise has gone up six percent, our food cost obviously is the same as at the supermarket. Our costs are going up as well.
"We want people to come down and enjoy an experience with us but if it's going to be too expensive for people to come out and they're not going to get the service that they expect, people will stop coming out."
McLaughlin said the staffing shortages are the worst he's ever seen and businesses are closing as a result.
"Doors have been closing for the last two years, it's happening every week and it's not going to stop.
"Our industry that was once world-class is now in dire straits, it's in peril. It makes me really sad, I've been in it for a long time and it's not getting any better."
According to Careers NZ, the median salary for the hospitality and tourism industries was $50,000 a year in 2020.
