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Comment by wccrawford | Hacker News Reader

$45k is nice, but for a manager doing a job so hard that this article says they can "manage anything", it seems like they're woefully underpaid. With their skills, they should be able to command a lot more pay somewhere else.

If all of this is true, I'd expect to see more WH managers move to higher paying jobs and WH have a harder time finding qualified managers, meaning they'd be forced to pay more.

Apparently the article claims they could get $117k, which is a lot different. Even with some hefty exaggeration, that would mean they are indeed woefully underpaid.

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Waffle House managers, in my experience, are heavily sourced internally. (Or at least used to be)

This ensures you have a pipeline of new managers when someone moves on, as well as benefiting from far more experience than hiring externally.

Furthermore, while there may be higher paying jobs in a nearby city, there certainly aren't in the same area.

There are Waffle Houses at the intersection of two state highways. Which is to say, places where they're the only business there.

Coming from someone who spent years in hospitality this is 100% the right answer. I’ve since moved onto technology gigs but it’s very common to prove yourself in a much lower tiered position and move on.

Start at McDonald’s, move to Panera and receive a nice Quality of life bump, then move onto something even more stable and rewarding like Trader Joe’s or Costco.

The other side of this is those that are very capable but very deficient in other areas, they started working at Waffle House since they don’t fit into normal society as one would think of it and happen to land there. Since the barrier to break into these jobs is nonexistent they do find a “home” and lack the ability to ever grow or move on, for better or worse.

$45k is on par for restaurant managers, especially for a new managers. I worked in hospitality on and off for 7 years. Most managers were making about the same as teachers. GMs were likely in the $100k range for most large chains. Some GMs were managing partners and they owned a stake in the store they worked in. The downside is a lot of the pay was dependent on bonuses.

If as the article claims they don’t overwork their employees and they work 40 hours a week, they may be doing a lot of different things but they aren’t “overworked”.

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