Baristas in hot demand as cafes struggle with staffing shortages

Sunday, 21 August 2022

Foundation Cafe barista Ella Cox works her magic while on shift at the Tūranga library-based cafe.

A nationwide shortage of workers has led to “phenomenal” wages for some trades, while the Government promises new immigration tweaks will help relieve workforce pressures.

On Sunday, Immigration Minister Michael Wood announced an extra 12,000 holidaymakers could come to New Zealand for work over the next year, and median wage requirements for migrant workers in some sectors would temporarily ease.

The country's borders fully reopened last month, but fewer people were travelling than before the Covid-19 pandemic, and New Zealand was competing against other countries for migrant labour.

Wood acknowledged the hospitality and tourism sectors were particularly hard hit.

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Some inexperienced wait staff can get up to $27 – or even $30 – per hour amid a national worker shortage.

Barista Academy co-owner Rachel Berry said she had never seen wages so high for trained coffee makers.

She said baristas could get up to $30 per hour – a rise of about 60% from three years ago, when they would have been paid the minimum wage of $16.50.

“It’s got so bad, cafes are poaching staff off each other … it becomes every man for himself when the demand for staff is so high.”

Wait staff were also attracting high wages, with one who had no experience recently securing a $27 per hour starting wage.

According to Stats NZ data released earlier this month, the median hourly wage across all industries had increased 6.8% in the year ending June 2022, to $29.66.

Sales workers now earned a median of $23 an hour, while labourers got $23.97, community and personal service workers $25.33, and technicians and trades workers $28.40.

Berry, who also owns Auckland cafe The Business of Coffee, said the hospitality industry was struggling without international working holiday visa holders.

Cafes have begun poaching good baristas from each other, cafe owner Rachel Berry says.

“I was surprised at how many people we were training while our borders were closed. They are all young people, and now they’re telling us they are off overseas. We are training them to leave our country.”

The reasons they were leaving varied, but the cost of living was a big factor, she said.

Little Poms owner Ava Nakagawa said it was really difficult to get staff, but she believed it would get easier since the borders had reopened.

Her Christchurch cafe paid the living wage (currently $22.75 an hour) as a starting point for junior and part-timers and went up from there.

She was not able to pay upwards of $30 for a barista when she charged only $4.50 for a coffee. She did not think customers would want to pay $5 to $6.

It was not just about pay though, Nakagawa said. She provided other benefits including health insurance, Christmas off and a good environment.

Cox, left, with Foundation Cafe operations manager Susan Williams-Finch. The pair say a good working environment is more important than pay rates.

Productive People director Tania Washer said cafes were “constantly looking for staff” and were willing to take people with no experience.

Her company had paired with the West Coast Trades Academy to create a new course for high school students to train in cafe skills.

The students were picking up part-time weekend work while still at school, she said.

Washer also managed Development West Coast’s upskill project, which helped businesses pay for barista training.

Underground Coffee Roasters national sales manager Brad Chittock said he was hearing cafe owners from Northland to Invercargill were struggling with staff shortages.

“It’s the lack of people combined with people off sick and it’s been systemic throughout the pandemic era but has become more profound since Omicron.

Barista Justine Podio happy in her work at Fidel's Cafe in Wellington.

“It’s across New Zealand but particularly hitting those areas that relied on international staff like Queenstown and Auckland,” he said.

Christchurch’s Foundation Cafe operations manager, Susan Williams-Finch, said she “definitely needed more staff”.

The hourly rate for her baristas had gone up since pre-Covid times, with $23 to $26 an hour now on offer.

The cafe tried to provide a supportive environment for its hard-working baristas, “to make them feel what they do is really valued”, Williams-Finch said.

Full-time student Ella Cox had been working part-time in the cafe for three weeks.

On Saturday, the team produced over 700 coffees and went through 40 litres of milk.

“You have to be on to it.”

Many baristas would not want to work somewhere if the environment was not good, “even if the pay was good”, she said.

Williams-French said she was “excited” about the additional working holiday visas announced on Sunday.

Roger Young owns popular Wellington establishment, Fidel’s Cafe on Cuba St, and he described the hiring situation in two words: “F….. terrible.”

“It’s unprecedented times – there’s just such a shortage of not just baristas.

“We’ve been going for 25 years, and I’ve never seen anything like it.”

He said they were willing to train baristas, but it was the general shortage of hospitality staff that was killing them.

Young said he understood that it was a case of supply and demand pushing wages up, but owners were being pressed on all sides, they could not afford to raise rates much more.

“We can’t keep putting the prices up and charge $7 for a coffee.”