Total Labor Costs for Events

Financial Outlays It is easy to overlook the cost of the commissary labor to prepare this party. In this example, many preparation tasks will be completed in the commissary, such as cooking and cleaning the shrimp, cleaning the salad greens, trimming the meat, and preparing the vegetables. The labor to perform these functions must be accounted for and included in the cost of producing the party. The ideal way to compute the labor costs is to actually time each process. For example, if it takes one cook, who is paid $10 per hour including payroll benefits, six hours to cook and clean the shrimp for the raw bar, this would equal $60. Labor costs should be computed for all items and totaled. In this case, let us assume the commissary labor costs to produce the remainder of the menu to be $240; the total is now $300. After computing food and commissary labor costs, the next step is to compute the other labor costs necessary to produce the party, for instance: • Cost to pull, pack, deliver, return, clean, and store • Cost of commissary labor at the party site • Cost of service and beverage staff at the party site Most caterers use estimated figures based on past parties to estimate the cost of pulling, packing, delivering, returning, cleaning, and storing. Smart caterers know better than to underestimate these costs. These costs are very real, and can amount to hundreds of dollars for each party. In our example, let us assume that it takes 20 hours to perform these functions, and that those staff are paid $7.00 per hour including payroll benefits. Twenty hours times $7.00 per hour equals $140. Commissary labor at the party site is computed by estimating the actual hours necessary. This case, for example, is for six staff for seven hours at $8.00 per hour including payroll benefits: 6 Staff x 7 Hours Each × $8.00 per Hour = $336 Finally, laborwise, the cost for service and bar staff must be computed. This is donc, again, by simply multiplying the number of staff times their hourly rate times the number of hours worked. Let's assume that there will be ten servers and two bartenders for this event, each earning $12 per hour including payroll bene-fits. Six staff will work seven hours, and six staff will work five hours. The cost is computed as follows: • 6 staff x 7 hours x $12 per hour = $504 • 6 staff x 5 hours x $12 per hour = 360 • Total service and bar staff = $864 We now know the total labor cost to produce this event. Commissary labor to prepare the food $300 Labor to pull, pack, deliver, etc. 140 On-site commissary labor 336 Service and bar labor 864 Total labor $1,640