Dock Street Brewery is one of Philadephia’s oldest breweries, established in 1985. The brewery has undoubtedly seen many trends come and go in the beer industry. Now they are the ones setting a trend.
Like many other businesses, the Covid pandemic impacted Dock Street’s business in ways they never imagined. And around mid-March, the brewery announced a staff layoff, without guarantee of future employment. Shortly after they received feedback from the community (some former workers) that they did not handle it well. As a result the brewery initially released the following statement, which addressed many of these concerns. One day after that statement they posted the following on Instagram as a way of telling the community that they were being heard. On the same day they released this post which specifically addressed wages and how they were guaranteeing “at least $15/hr through combination of higher hourly wages” along with more equitable tip distribution.
Fast forward a month later and the brewery recently announced major changes to their service model at their Dock Street West location. The new model, which was announced over Instagram, is a reversal on their initial statements as it eliminates tipping altogether, and institutes a service charge model. The change, they say, allows for a living wage for FOH (front of house) and BOH (back of house) staff.
Dock Street wants it to be known that this is a permanent change, not just one made during Covid-19 and that they are still learning and tweaking this as they go.
The plan details for their Dock Street West location include the following:
• The brewery will add anywhere from a 12%-18% service charge (they are still working out the exact %) to all orders.
• Higher hourly wages, with opportunity for raises upon completion of Cicerone certifications.
• Continue to provide 50% towards the healthcare of full-time employees, and a smaller percentage for part-time employees.
The link to the full details of the changes can be found here at Dock Street’s website.
See the announcement below from the brewery on Facebook:
What do you think of the new changes Dock Street is implementing? Do you think more breweries will follow this path?
