A popular Paulie Gee’s standard, the Hellified Pork Pie White comes with fresh mozz, Berkshire sopressata picante, sweet Italian fennel sausage, sliced red onions, sliced fresh garlic, fresh basil and Mike’s Hot Honey.

once we hit a certain nightly sales target, they begin earning a bonus per hour based on house sales. For instance, our first-tier target right now is $2,500, so any time we hit that, the pizza makers make an additional $1 per hour for that shift. For every $1,000 more we hit, they make another $1 per hour. So, at $5,500, each pizza maker is making an additional $4 per hour. This doesn’t balance out the difference in front-ofhouse versus back-of-house pay, but it helps keep our team focused as we get busier and gives them something to be excited about as each order comes in. Also, with the recent changes in federal law regarding tip sharing, we’ll be testing out a new system that will help close the

gap a bit more and align everyone onto a tip structure that will help incentivize everybody a little more tightly. Porter: How did you determine that things were out of balance in terms of compensation for FOH and BOH? Tung: We experienced some great

growth in 2018, so I wanted to see what the impact was across everyone’s hourly and total pay—mostly focused on the hourly. In January 2018, the difference in a FOH position’s pay vs. BOH was significant ($27 an hour vs. $12.12 an hour). By November 2018, FOH saw a 27.7% increase in hourly pay, while BOH saw a 12.5% increase due to higher volume at the restaurant. This

was solely based on tips (FOH) and bonuses (BOH), which just helped reinforce to me how unaligned this system is. As we continue to grow, this system would basically have our FOH continue to make more via tips (volume), but BOH would continue to increase at a slower rate (under the current bonus structure). I want our system to reflect the importance of BOH, so I felt like we had to revise our whole payment system. Porter: How does the new structure work? Tung: It has four key components: tips,

loyalty-based pay, skill-based pay, and intangibles. As you may know, the new federal law allows for restaurants to

“We’re all playing Paulie’s greatest hits, so pizzas like the Hellboy, Cherry Jones, Greenpointer and others are ones that we want everyone to experience. But from there, each location definitely has its own persona.” — DERRICK TUNG 44 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

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