Outsourcing founder explains why a Manhattan restaurant uses a staffing firm in the Philippines that pays cashiers a few dollars an hour: ‘The cost is admittedly cheaper than the U.S.’

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Trying hard to stay afloat in a restaurant industry spending 36% of its cash on labor and with minimum wage creeping to $16, a cadre of local New York City chains have found a shrewd way to save: enlisting the help of cashiers video calling in from the Philippines and paying them way less.
Zhang’s company draws most of its labor from a massive well of 1.3 million Filipino workers employed through the country’s business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, which is the largest in the world and generated $35.4 billion in revenue in 2023.
The business, which has been operating in Sansan Chicken since last October, is also in its pilot stages at Sansan Ramen and a couple Yaso Kitchen locations, as well as in another local chain that Zhang did not disclose the name of.
Though he didn’t disclose Happy Cashier’s wages, Zhang said, “We pay 150% more than the average cashier job in the Philippines,” which, according to Indeed, is 56.69 Philippine pesos, or about $1, per hour as base pay.