Yahoo Finance Cafe owner reveals impressive salary after shock over measly coffee profit
The former chef says his job doesn’t even feel like work anymore.
An Aussie cafe owner has revealed his impressive six-figure salary, as more Aussies break the great work taboo of sharing how much they earn.
Former chef Asa Donehue revealed his salary after being stopped in the street and asked about his job.
“I’m a cafe owner/operator and I earn around the $300,000 mark,” Donehue said. “I used to be a chef so I have been cooking for 20 years. But I own four cafes now, they’re called Commitment Issues.”
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The Adelaide cafe owner said he really enjoyed his job, with the famous phrase ‘find a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life’ apparently ringing true for him.
“I don’t really feel like I work. I can work every day of the week and [it] wouldn’t bother me. I get up in the morning and it’s not work to me anymore,” he said.
The video, which was posted by jobs app GetAhead, left some viewers divided with some shocked by Donehue’s high pay and others arguing it was “not that profitable” for four cafes.
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Yasmin Chung, who runs the Sisterhood cafe in Hobart, recently revealed she earned just 0.40 cents from each $4.80 coffee sold, with government taxes, the actual cost of the goods, staff wages and running costs eating into the profit.
Chung told Yahoo Finance many cafes operated on a profit margin of between 5 and 10 per cent.
The average amount cafe owners earn can vary widely. According to point-of-sale software provider POSApt, Aussie cafe owners can earn between $60,000 and $150,000 annually, depending on their business size, and usually profit around 5 to 6 per cent of the cafe sales.
Meanwhile, Background Speciality Coffee has claimed cafe owners can earn between $50,000 and $300,000, on average, with coffee shops making a net income of between 10 and 17 per cent of sales.
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Businesses are feeling the pinch from reduced consumer spending. CreditorWatch’s January data found spending at cafes and restaurants were below levels seen in August and September - something the group noted was “highly unusual” over the Christmas and holiday period.
National business-failure rates are forecast to increase from 4.18 per cent to 5.80 per cent this year, with the food and beverage sector the most at risk of payment defaults.
Calls for greater pay transparency
While discussing pay is still seen as taboo among some Aussies, GetAhead CEO and founder Sam McNamara has argued pay transparency benefits workers.
McNamara has made it compulsory for companies to list their salary expectations when advertising a job on the platform.
“I think the question to ask is, ‘If a company is hiding people’s salaries, why is that?’” McNamara previously told Yahoo Finance. “We are headed to a point where it will be 100 per cent completely transparent, and I think it will make for a fairer workplace."
