We all know the wrath of the British chef and television personality Gordon Ramsay, the man that has given us timeless quotes such as “What are you? An idiot sandwich”.
This time however, it’s his turn, or rather his restaurant’s turn, to feel our wrath.
It’s pandemonium – the Gordon Ramsay Bar & Grill restaurant in Malaysia is now the talk of the town for offering meagre salaries despite its expensive menu.
Monthly Pay of S$453
The restaurant had only opened recently in Kuala Lumpur in June, and its menu features a wide variety of mouth-watering dishes.
The wages however, are significantly much less divine compared to the food.
According to a job listing on Joblum, the restaurant is offering hostesses wages starting at S$453 (RM1,500).
To put that into perspective, a slice of Ramsay’s iconic Beef Wellington is priced at S$90 (RM300).
What a hostess at the restaurant gets paid in a month, is equivalent to five slices of Beef Wellington.
This was pointed out by a Twitter user, who drew the Internet’s attention to wages offered by the restaurant for other positions such as that of a sous chef as well.
For the position of a sous chef, the salary starts from S$1,663 per month (RM5,500), based on the listing from Joblum.
The Twitter user called out the newly-opened restaurant, as well as Sunway Resort where the restaurant was situated at, for “exploiting third world country labour”.
The user was unhappy with the low wages, especially given the menu’s exorbitant prices.
Netizens’ reactions
The tweet was soon latched onto as social media fodder, with netizens getting into heated debates in relation to the wages paid by the restaurant.
Most netizens however, concurred that the wages were unreasonably low.
One particular twitter use criticised Gordon Ramsay for being associated with a “cheapskate, low paying establishment”. The user also urged others to boycott the restaurant and Sunway Group, claiming that from their personal experience working with Sunway Group, the group was evidently “cheapskate”.
Others also made reference to the low wages paid to the restaurant’s hostesses to shed light on the nation’s economic system built on “exploited, low-cost labour”.
This statement however, doesn’t seem to hold true for everyone. Apparently, one user pointed out that another luxury hotel, Four Seasons Kuala Lumpur, pays more than twice of what the Sunway Group offers.
Other netizens also highlighted that the restaurant prices its menu items higher for tourists, and urged other netizens to keep in mind other costs borne by the restaurant such as marketing and branding costs.
There’s no clear conclusion to the debate, but with any luck, the state of wages in our neighbour’s hospitality industry will be reviewed and improved in the near future.
Featured Image: Facebook (Gordon Ramsay Bar & Grill KL)