A pizza restaurant owner says he poached staff from rivals thanks to his earlier closing time, and says ‘everything is fair game’ during the labor shortage

• A pizza chain franchisee is asking his general managers to poach workers from rival restaurants.
• "Everything is fair game," Your Pie franchisee Dan Sacco told Bloomberg.
• He's poached some staff by luring them in with earlier closing times than rivals, he said.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

A pizza chain franchisee told Bloomberg that he's asking general managers to poach workers from rival restaurants as the hospitality industry continues to struggle finding enough staff.

"Everything is fair game," Dan Sacco, who owns Your Pie restaurants in Iowa, told the publication.

He said he'd managed to poach some workers from rivals that shut at 1 a.m. by luring them in with Your Pie pizzerias' 9:30 p.m. closing time.

Sacco said that he'd also attracted more workers after raising wages to an average of around $10.50 an hour. Workers make around $2 an hour in tips on top of that, he said.

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Dave McDougall, the CEO of the Georgia-based chain, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in May that the company had around 750 employees but was struggling to fill open roles. He said that the chain had raised its average starting pay from $7.25 an hour to between $8 and $12 an hour.

Other restaurant chains across the US, from McDonald's and Chipotle to Starbucks, are also raising wages to attract new hires amid the current labor shortage. Some are rolling out other benefits like free tuition, sign-on bonuses, and even free iPhones.

Joblist CEO Kevin Harrington told Insider that the tight labor market was primarily driven by people leaving entry-level, hourly-paid, and customer-facing jobs, and that as a result the hospitality industry was being especially hard hit.

The labor shortage, coupled with soaring ingredients costs, is causing some restaurants to slash opening hours and raise prices. A restaurant owner in Maine told Insider that ingredient shortages were forcing her to close her restaurant an hour early every day, while a New Jersey pizzeria owner said that he'd had to raise menu prices for chicken wings by more than 50%.

Got a story about how your business is responding to the labor and ingredients shortages? Email this reporter at [email protected].