During a CNN town hall Wednesday evening, President Biden said restaurant owners may have to start paying 15 dollars an hour plus tips to entice workers back.
Host Don Lemon called on restaurant owner John Lanni, who is part of a group that owns 39 restaurants and is having trouble hiring workers back.
Lanni asked, "The entire industry, amongst other industries, continues to struggle to find employees. How do you and the Biden administration plan to incentive those who haven't returned to work yet? Hiring is our top priority right now."
Biden said that the administration has spent billions of dollars to ensure restaurants can stay open during the pandemic, but that former restaurant workers may be looking for better opportunities.
Don Lemon came back and asked for more information to help Lanni out.
Biden said, "John, first of all, the thing we did to help John and the Johns out is provide billions of dollars to make sure they could stay open, number one. So you all contributed to making sure John could stay in business."
"We should have done that, as we did for other industries. but secondly, John, my guess is that people being 7, $8 an hour plus tips, that's -- I think, John, you're going to be finding 15 bucks an hour or more now."
After the financial collapse in 2008, owners and corporations slowly hired workers back but with decreased wages and hours to make more profits, but now it appears workers finally have the upper hand to try and make a decent salary.
