Tough order for restaurants: wages, immigration, smoking ban.

• Author: Meersman, Pete
• Position: Guest column

HALF OF ALL ADULTS ARE RESTAURANT PATRONS ON A TYPICAL DAY. Colorado's 9,500 restaurants serve up more than 2 million meals each day. Restaurants are the largest private-sector employer in Colorado, with more than 176,000 workers. Restaurant sales in the state will reach nearly $7.6 billion this year, or nearly $21 million a day. And state and local taxes generated from restaurant patrons will exceed $470 million this year.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Sounds glamorous, right? Well, maybe. National statistics show that an average restaurant makes less than 5 percent profit before tax. Seventy-five percent of Colorado restaurants are independently owned, single-unit operations. That familiar face you see at the door of your favorite restaurant is probably the owner there to greet you and take care of you. Most of them operate on very thin profit margins--and a dropped tray of dishes, a long wait, or poor service can be the difference between a profit and a loss.

Slight changes in laws or regulations also can make a significant difference in a restaurant's profitability. There are good reasons why 4,500 of the state's restaurants are members of the Colorado Restaurant Association. They rely on our lobbyists to protect their interests at the state Capitol, at the county commission, and at city council.

Leaders in our industry have been closely watching the immigration debate, the effects of the statewide smoking ban, and a proposed Colorado minimum-wage increase initiative on the November ballot.

The immigration debate is important to all Americans. The decisions being made right now will affect our country for years to come. Our board of directors recently adopted a position on this issue: Secure the borders, establish a quick, reliable, and tamper-proof method to determine a potential employees' immigration status, establish a guest-worker program to fill the jobs Americans won't take, register the illegal immigrants and allow them to stay here until the guest-worker program is up and working. And, once that guest-worker program is operating, allow the illegal immigrants to stay here but only if they qualify and also get in line behind those people who are already in line to become citizens.

The statewide smoking ban was a very contentious issue for our members. In a perfect world, business owners should be able to make business decisions based on the demands of their customers. But the proliferation of local smoking bans forced the CRA to support...