Minimum wage rises may make recruiting trainee pub chefs harder

With pay rising to £6.19 an hour it could prove even harder to entice young people into the industry on a trainee chef’s salary.

Moleface Pub Company owner John Molnar said: "With the minimum wage at the rate it’s at, a kitchen porter could potentially earn more than a trainee chef.

"How do you convince someone to come in at weekends and work into the night when they could earn more washing pots?"

Molnar said a trainee chef is on £30 a day, which equates to £7,200 a year. "People won’t stick it out because they can’t afford to live on the wage," he added.

Brian Whiting, managing director of south-east operator Whiting & Hammond, confirmed that the group’s 10 new apprentices will earn less than the national minimum wage. "Someone has to do the job and it’s hard work," he said.

"The industry has been left behind on this and there is a struggle for staff. We have to pay more for them and the customer has to accept we have to charge more for our product."

Whiting & Hammond will pay its apprentices more than the minimum wage for apprentices (£2.65ph), but less than the national minimum wage.

"They tend to be young,
so haven’t generally got the responsibilities of children or a mortgage. You have to take less money when you’re learning an industry — it’s the same as going to college.

"Once they finish their training they will be on more, once they become valuable. Some can do that quicker than others. It’s not about what you can earn today, but what you can earn tomorrow. But you do have to pay people their worth and I think if the national minimum wage wasn’t there some employers would abuse it."