“You can’t compete against that,” said Bob Luz, head of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, who describes the Encore hiring as a “huge sucking sound” coming from Everett. “However, the combination of an exciting new industry and the appeal of the Encore luxury brand have driven a truly outstanding pool of candidates to attend our job fairs and hiring events.” “Clearly, the labor market in Metro Boston is competitive,” Wynn Resorts said in a statement. Around half of Encore’s 5,500 positions are expected to be unionized. Dishwashers, security guards, housekeepers, and call center workers will make around $20 an hour - with benefits including paid parental leave and 401(k) plans for full-time workers. Servers at Encore will make between $6.44 and $7.66 an hour, plus tips, well above the $4.35 state minimum that many servers make. “I think everybody’s going to be trading notes: How many did you lose?”
There’s all these people around town who are sitting on offers and they haven’t told their bosses,” said David Gibbons, executive director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, which lost an hourly employee to Encore after the license ruling, in addition to four or five senior managers who left more than a year ago.