local businesses refused to comply with our salary transparency law

A reader writes:

This is a completely low-stakes question, spurred on by the town Facebook group.

Our province mandated that all job postings need to have a salary included. This is law.

There have been two instances where two local restaurants have put out job postings without the salary. Someone pointed this out in the comments and it became a huge issue, where people fought back saying it was unreasonable for the owner who are small town business owners to know this (basic, now three-year-old law) bit.

It eventually culminated in two different ways: a giant Reddit post where restaurant apologized and asked for resumes and still didn’t put in the salary in the post that once it was pointed out, caused the post to be locked. The second restaurant made a very long post about how they run their business is how they run their business and they can report them all they want.

So I ask you and the readers, what would you do as a bystander to this? On one hand, I think restaurants chronically underpay and take advantage of young workers and it’s not hard to put in the basic $18-$20/hour wage in the job description. Reporting the infractions very easy — just a form with a screen shot. On the other hand, local institutional restaurants are cherished members of the community and clearly have their supporters. Them closing would hurt the community (and the local food scene). Again, no skin in this game. I know both were reported so they will be looked at by the government.

I’m willing to cut a small business a little bit of slack on not knowing about a change in the law, but once they’re informed, they get zero slack if they continue not to follow it. “We run our business how we run our business, regardless of what the law requires” should get zero respect or support when their motivation is to continue disadvantaging workers.

If they don’t like the law, they can lobby their legislators to change it (a very good reason to keep up with discussions about possible legal changes in their area!).

And should they be such cherished members of the community if they’re openly flouting the community’s democratically-passed laws?

They’re not even engaging on the issue, like by explaining their opposition to the requirement and how it affects their ability to stay in business — which still wouldn’t get them out of following the law but would be a far more respectful way to engage than the “too bad, we don’t care” stance they took instead.

I’m with everyone who reported them.

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