Latest / Restaurant Business with Fexingo: Food Service, Hospitality, and Independent Operators / The Real Economics of Restaurant Dishwasher Labor
Transcript
- Lucas: Let me start with a number that stopped me this week. The median hourly wage for a dishwasher in the United States is about $14.50 an hour, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data from earlier this year. Luna: That is not a lot for a job that literally keeps the kitchen running. Lucas: Exactly. And the turnover rate in that position hovers around 80 percent annually across the industry. Which means the average restaurant is replacing its dishwashers almost once a year, sometimes more. And that costs real money. Luna: How much are we talking? Because I think a lot of operators just see the hourly wage on the books and don't factor in the hidden costs. Lucas: Right. So I looked at a specific case — an 80-seat Italian restaurant in Chicago called Trattoria Sorella, which is a composite of places I've talked to. They run about 300 covers on a Saturday night. On a busy summer Saturday, their dish pit is handling plates, glassware, silverware, pots, sheet pans — everything. Luna: And they have one dishwasher on shift for that? Lucas: Typically one on weekdays, two on weekends. The owner told me that replacing a dishwasher costs them roughly $3,700 in recruiting, training, and lost productivity before the new hire is up to speed. Multiply that by an 80 percent turnover rate — if you have three dishwashers on payroll, you're replacing 2.4 of them per year. That's nearly $9,000 in turnover costs annually just for that one position. Luna: And that's before you factor in overtime when someone doesn't show up. Lucas: Which happens constantly. The same owner said they budget for 10 percent overtime on dishwashers just from no-shows. That adds another $2,000 or so. So the all-in cost for that single position — wages plus overtime plus turnover — is probably around $37,000 a year per dishwasher. For a restaurant running on thin margins, that's a significant line item. Luna: It makes you wonder why the wage doesn't go up. If the cost of turnover is that high, you'd think paying $16 or $17 an hour to keep someone around would be a no-brainer. Lucas: You would think. But there's a structural problem. Many independent operators are stuck — they can't raise menu prices fast enough to cover wage increases, especially in a city like Chicago where the minimum wage is already $15.80 as of this year. And there's wage compression from fast-casual chains. Places like Chipotle are starting crew at $17 or $18 an hour in the same labor market. So the restaurant is competing for the same pool of workers, but they can only offer $14.50 plus tips. Luna: Right, because dishwashers don't typically get tips unless there's a tip pool. So they're making less than the line cooks and way less than the servers. Lucas: Exactly. And the job is physically brutal — standing over hot water, chemicals, heavy racks, late nights. So it's not surprising that people leave. But here's what I find interesting: some operators are starting to rethink the role entirely. Luna: What do you mean? Automation? Lucas: Partly. There are now high-efficiency glass washers that can clean a rack in 90 seconds, and ultrasonic sinks for delicate items. I spoke with a restaurant group in Minneapolis that installed an automated conveyor dishwashing system — the kind you see in cafeterias. They said it cut their dish labor by 40 percent. But the upfront cost was $60,000, which is prohibitive for most independents. Luna: So it's a rich get richer situation. The groups with capital can invest in automation and save on labor; the single-unit operators are stuck. Lucas: That's exactly the dynamic. But the more interesting shift I'm seeing is in scheduling. Some restaurants are moving to a two-dishwasher shift model — one person during the prep hours, another for the dinner rush. It sounds like more labor cost, but the idea is that each person works a shorter, more manageable shift, so they're less likely to burn out. And you get better coverage. Luna: Does the math work on that? Because you're essentially paying two people instead of one. Lucas: I ran it for Trattoria Sorella. If you have one dishwasher working a 10-hour shift at $14.50, that's $145 in direct wages. With a two-dishwasher model — one from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., one from 3 p.m. to close, each working six hours — you're paying $87 per person, so $174 total. That's $29 more per day. But if it reduces turnover from 80 percent to, say, 50 percent, you save roughly $3,700 in replacement costs per position per year. That more than covers the extra daily cost. Luna: So the math works if you can actually retain people. But that's a big if, because the wage is still low and the work is still hard. Lucas: Right. And this brings us to the bigger question — is the dishwasher role being systematically undervalued? I recently read a piece in a trade journal arguing that dishwashers are effectively the 'canary in the coal mine' for kitchen labor. When dishwashers quit, the whole kitchen slows down. Line cooks have to wash their own pans, which cuts into prep time. Service quality drops. Yet the position is almost never discussed in chef conferences or industry panels. Luna: It's invisible labor. You only notice it when it's not there. Lucas: Exactly. And there's a parallel to what happened with line cooks about a decade ago. Remember when line cooks were seen as disposable, and then the labor shortage forced wages up and the role got more respect? I think dishwashers might be next. Some restaurants are already experimenting with career paths — train dishwashers to move into prep cooking after six months. It gives them a reason to stay. Luna: That's smart. It turns a dead-end job into a stepping stone. And it probably improves the quality of your prep cooks because they already know the kitchen flow. Lucas: Exactly. A restaurant in Portland I read about does exactly that. They have a formal program: 3 months on dishes, then cross-training on the cold station, then hot apps. Their dishwasher turnover dropped to 30 percent. The owner told me the program costs about $1,500 per person in training time, but it saves them $10,000 in avoided turnover over two years. Luna: That's a great return. And it makes the restaurant a more attractive place to work, which helps with front of house hiring too. Lucas: Yeah. The thing is, these solutions require intentionality. You can't just throw money at the problem — you have to redesign the job. And I think that's where a lot of independent operators struggle. They're so busy putting out fires that they don't have the bandwidth to rethink a role that's always been treated as entry-level and expendable. Luna: It's almost like we're asking: what is the dishwasher worth? And the market says $14.50 an hour, but the actual value to the operation is much higher. Lucas: Right. And that disconnect is where the opportunity is. If you're an operator and you can figure out how to close that gap — whether through scheduling, career paths, or even just better recognition — you're going to have a real competitive advantage in the labor market. Luna: You know, speaking of keeping things running, I think a lot about how these conversations we have on the show require a similar kind of intentional support. A couple of dollars a month from listeners is genuinely what keeps these episodes ad-free and independent. Lucas: Yeah, it's a small thing that makes a big difference. If these conversations have moved your work forward in some small way, you can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. And honestly, even one coffee's worth helps us keep digging into topics like this one. Luna: Totally. Back to the dish pit — what do you think is the next frontier? Are we going to see more automation, or more human-centric solutions? Lucas: I think both, but the human side will win in independent restaurants. Automation works in high-volume, standardized settings — hotels, stadiums, chain restaurants. But for the 80-seat Italian place, the variability is too high. You need a person who can handle a sudden rush of 50 plates and also clean a burnt roasting pan. A machine can't do that yet. Luna: So the real innovation is in how we value and structure that human work. Lucas: Exactly. And I think we'll see more restaurants treating the dishwasher as an investment rather than an expense. The ones that do will have lower turnover, better kitchen morale, and — ironically — lower total labor costs. The ones that don't will keep bleeding money on rehiring and overtime. Luna: It's one of those classic business problems where the obvious short-term fix — pay as little as possible — creates a long-term cost that's harder to see. Lucas: Yeah. And I think the restaurants that survive the next labor cycle will be the ones that figure out how to make the dish pit a place where people want to stay. Not because it's easy, but because it's respected. Luna: That's a good note to end on. I'll never look at a clean plate the same way again.