INSIDE: DEAR ABBY, HOROSCOPE, PUZZLES & FEATURES
C1
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • SUNDAY, AUGUST 1, 2021
bendbulletin.com/business
Permanent
to-go cocktails
offer Oregon restaurants
‘newfound flexibility’
BY SUZANNE ROIG
The Bulletin
W
hen state regulators allowed bars
and restaurants to sell cocktails to go, it
opened up a whole new avenue for business.
Consumers no longer have to go to a bar to get their favorite mixed
drinks. They now can take them to go. On June 8, Oregon lawmakers made to-
go cocktails permanent.
The Oregon Liquor Control Commission wanted to help the businesses affected by
the government-mandated lockdowns. Bars and restaurants that operate under a full
on-premise license with the OLCC — private clubs, bars/restaurants, caterers and public
venues with food services — are allowed to sell a cocktail to go and wine with food.
To-go cocktails are now permanently allowed in more than a dozen states around
the country. During the pandemic, more than 30 states had allowed cocktails to go
“We see the
newfound flexibility
as a small benefit
that will grow
exponentially in the
years ahead.”
as a temporary measure.
In Central Oregon, summer tourism is in full swing, and some
consumers are shifting their purchases to takeout, rather than dine-
in consumption of food and beverages, according to the
industry.
See Cocktails / C8
— Jason Brandt, Oregon Restaurant
& Lodging Association
What does
Oregon allow now?
Under the OLCC rules, cocktails to go are
single-serving wine and distilled spirits
and a mixer, and cannot contain more
than 3 ounces of alcohol.
Only two cocktails can be sold to go
with a “substantial food item,” according
to the OLCC website.
The cocktails also must be single serving
in a container with a lid that includes a
seal designed to make it known when
the seal has been removed or broken.
$15 wage becoming the norm as employers struggle to fill jobs
BY CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The signs and
banners are dotted along suburban
commercial strips and hanging in
shop windows and restaurants, evi-
dence of a new desperation among
America’s service-industry employers:
“Now Hiring, $15 an hour.”
It is hardly the official federal min-
imum wage — at $7.25, that level
hasn’t been raised since 2009 — but
for many lower-skilled workers, $15
an hour has increasingly become a
reality.
Businesses, particularly in the
restaurant, retail and travel indus-
tries, have been offering a $15 wage
to try to fill enough jobs to meet
surging demand from consumers,
millions of whom are now spending
freely after a year in lockdown. And
many of the unemployed, buoyed
by stimulus checks and expanded
jobless aid, feel able to hold out for
higher pay.
The change since the pandemic has
been swift. For years, and notably in
the 2020 presidential race, labor ad-
vocates had trumpeted $15 an hour as
a wage that would finally allow low-
paid workers to afford basic necessi-
ties and narrow inequality. It struck
many as a long-term goal.
Now, many staffing companies say
$15 an hour is the level that many
businesses must pay to fill their jobs.
“That number is not a coinci-
dence,” said Aaron Sojourner, an
economist at the University of Min-
nesota. “It’s the number that those
activists and workers put on the table
10 years ago and built a movement
towards.”
Even so, millions of Americans are
still earning less than $15 an hour.
The nonpartisan Congressional Bud-
get Office calculates that even by
2025, roughly 17 million workers will
remain below that level.
Yet at ZipRecruiter, the number of
job postings on the site that are ad-
vertising $15 an hour has more than
doubled since 2019, said Julia Pollak,
labor economist for the company. The
proportion of jobs that offer 401(k)
retirement accounts, flexible schedul-
ing, signing bonuses and other bene-
fits has risen, too.
See Hiring / C8
Charles Rex Arbogast/AP
Steven Dyme, owner of Flowers for Dreams, says the $15 minimum wage in Chicago
made it much easier to staff up when the economy reopened this spring and demand
for flowers, particularly for weddings, soared.