This is my question too. How to restaurants and cafes in Australia manage to do it, with wages in the $17-$22/hr range, AND penalty rates (double time on Sunday etc.)? [0] (PLUS 10% superannuation etc.)

[0] - https://www.payscale.com/research/AU/Industry=Restaurant/Hou...

I’ll take the lady friend to the local (nice) pub and buy us both a steak & chips, half a pint (to drink while we wait for the food), and a bottle of house Shiraz (to drink with), and it’ll be $110.

I’m lucky that I can do that, because I work in IT, but every time I do I think “holy shit, $110 for a pub meal”. That’s just what it costs.

(The Napier in Fitzroy, if anyone local is reading. Best scotch fillet you’ve ever had.)

How much is the qine2, $60?

$50 for a decent meal out w a beer isnt that far off. Rule #1 of eating out on a budget is to limit booze, wine for example is often a 10x markup for the same product you can buy at the store.

$40, I think. The steaks are $30 each but it’s a bloody good steak. $5 a pot x 2 brings us to $110.

I want a steak now.

(sorry hn, off topic but I need to)

The Napier is still open? God's be damned, I hope it's still there when I get back to Aus!

Very much open and doing a roaring trade. It’ll be around for a long while, I reckon.

The Union just round the corner has Melbourne’s best parma and is also doing nicely. It’s a great time to be living in Fitzroy.

We charge more.

We also cut down on staff (I have delivered food as a chef before), and watch our costings.

I'd prefer to take the food out, than to know my wait staff are starving though.

At the same time though, I have haif my own waitstaff come in for lunch in their days off(as they can afford it). I'm sure they spent that extra money on other businesses too.

I can't really comment more on the follow through from that on a more financial position though, not my training, but as I mentioned earlier, it was nice to know my wait staff weren't starving.

Prices are higher, and people eat out less often...

At least that's the case in northern Europe, wages are much higher, but services that relies on humans a super expensive.

Those figures might not be quite that high. Actually, the site you linked says "The average wage for a Waiter/Waitress is AU $15.84 per hour (median is $16.45 AUD)" [1]

But you're right, AU front-end staff are paid higher wages, even after adjusting for currency exchange rate:

$16 AUD = 12.50 USD

Maybe median income accounts for this? Different sources are giving different numbers for median income, but google is saying that...

AU median household income in 2014 was $80,704

US median household income in 2014 was $53,719

[1] https://goo.gl/3qQb5u

Unless you are careful it is quite easy to spend $20-30 on breakfast and a coffee in ANZ

This is a good question. I haven't worked in the industry. I have no idea.

With higher prices for restaurant/café meals?

With less competition?

With lower costs for other inputs?

With greater demand for labour across the economy?

By illegally paying employees below award / not paying superannuation payments?

All of the above (except lower costs, not a thing for anything in Australia).

In particular, in essentially all (non-chain-fast-food) restaurants where you can get a meal for less than $10, nobody is making award rates. If you're lucky the staff is family, if not they're exploiting students or illegal immigrants.