“Apart from the sea, food is the only thing Karachi’s people have an edge over Islamabad and Lahore,” said Shifa. Indulging in the best the city has to offer, she recalled, “When I visited a local restaurant, I noticed that there were waiters everywhere. Sometimes there are more waiters than customers.” She wondered how restaurants could afford so many waiters. She then went digging around to find out how much money these waiters make on a 12 hour shift, and was shocked.
Upon further inspection, she found out that some of the top fast food chains pay as little as Rs15,000, whereas some of the more upscale coffee shops located in DHA or Bukhari Commercial reach Rs35,000 at most. In many places, you don’t even get any salary, instead the waiters get 5% commission on every order. For instance, the waiters of Boat Basin only survive on tips.
The documentary explains how it’s unfair that the waiter’s time is set, meaning they have to work a certain number of hours. However, their wages are unstable as tips are not guaranteed. If the customer chooses to not tip or there are no sales for some reason, then the waiter’s income stops. Moreover, you’re putting another burden on the customer and a tip is someone’s token of appreciation, not their salary.
Portraying how restaurants usually clapback to such accusations, the documentary brings in pretend shop owners saying, “So what if we don’t pay them, they get tips. It’s difficult for us to survive here, if they get Rs40,000, we’ll have to shut down. Thank god they’re getting jobs otherwise they’ll steal mobiles on the streets.”
According to the latest economic survey, there are 55,000 restaurants and hotels in Karachi, where 2.3 lakh people work. These restaurants have a profit margin of 100% to 200%. “If these restaurants don’t have money then how come they have sprouted in every street and neighborhood?” the documentary asks.
The narrator thinks that what’s happening here might be worse than political injustice. The Sindh government has set the minimum wage at Rs40,000. All these matters come under the Labour Department. Chief Inspector of Labour, Athar Ali Shah revealed, “We have a complete mechanism, we have authority over minimum wage. They can come to us and tell us that so and so is happening to us, people are just afraid that they’ll be fired. But that’s not true, if everyone is fired, how will the restaurant run?”
The Chief Inspector admitted that they are an implementing agency and their job is to implement this. However, he thinks that although they are prosecuting Karachi, they cannot prosecute the whole city. He also clarified that not paying the minimum wage is a crime and the employers can go to jail for it.
Some restaurant owners think that even the minimum wage is not enough.
“If a person is earning Rs40,000, then what kind of lifestyle will they have?” asked Abdul Haadi Samad, a restaurateur. “He won’t be able to afford a small house with a rent of Rs7,000-8,000 or pay the electricity bill. He won’t be able to educate his children or feed himself or have fun. He won’t be able to do anything.”
Raftar is a platform dedicated to driving social change through the power of storytelling. They simplify complex issues, challenge the status quo, and attempt to bring a change in our society.