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View Full Version : Proposal Eliminates Employer-Provided Lunches In SF Because Restaurants Can’t Compete



Teh One Who Knocks
07-27-2018, 10:59 AM
KPIX CBS 5 San Francisco


https://i.imgur.com/VHcgO7Yl.jpg

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) – Two San Francisco supervisors want to do away with employer-provided free lunches, a perk enjoyed by thousands of people who work in the City. That’s because restaurant owners say they can’t compete.

It’s lunchtime at Perennial in SOMA but you wouldn’t know it. The seats are empty. Anthony Myint is the restaurant’s owner and says it’s extremely challenging owning a restaurant so close to big companies that have their own onsite free employee cafeterias.

“I think it’s never been harder to run a restaurant in the city then right now,” he said.

Other restaurant owners in the area agree.

“We see it in our business,” says Ryan Corridor, owner of Corridor. “We see thousands of employees in a block radius that don’t go out to lunch and don’t go out in support of restaurants every day — it’s because they don’t have to”

Gwyneth Borden is executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association”

“You can’t compete with free. Free food is a wonderful amenity but doesn’t do anything to extend the community around it,” she says.

San Francisco Supervisors Ahsha Safai and Aaron Peskin introduced new legislation Tuesday prohibiting in-house cafeterias in new office buildings and tech campuses.

They say the City does have the legal right to do this. It’s through a zoning amendment using certain planning and public health codes.

“This is the beginning of a conversation,” said Supervisor Safai. “We think it’s appropriate conversation to have now. We absolutely have that authorization.”

Jonathan Berger works at a startup company that gives their employees an allowance to go out and eat at local restaurants every day. He’s also worked at a large tech company with a cafeteria of free food.

“The workers in that café I think benefit tremendously, as well, from having those jobs there, so there’s a lot of ways to make about this issue and it’s complex,” he says.

If passed, this new law would only apply to new companies, not existing companies like Google, Levis and Twitter.

Goofy
07-27-2018, 12:39 PM
I dont know any workers who would go to a restaurant on their lunchbreak :shrug:

Teh One Who Knocks
07-27-2018, 12:40 PM
Once in a blue moon I might wanna go grab a burger or something, but I almost never go out to eat for lunch during the week.

perrhaps
07-28-2018, 09:08 AM
:-kI thought that there was no such thing as a free lunch.

Hikari Kisugi
07-28-2018, 02:17 PM
I assume these free lunches are seen a taxable benefit under your tax laws?