New Spanish Bar Only Hires Waiters Over 50

Entrepanes Díaz — a new bar in Barcelona, Spain — is making headlines for only hiring waiters over 50. Typically, bars and restaurants are staffed by a younger demographic but owner Kim Díaz was looking to change that. Díaz tells the Guardian that he "was looking for waiters who are over 50 because I knew they'd be fantastic and because society has unjustly pushed them out of the job market." He adds that the real advantage of hiring 50-year-olds is that they have "20 or 30 years of experience, a lifetime." Díaz explains to El Comercio (translated) that young people take serving positions "as a temporary job because they have other aspirations, but many of the people he hired "see it as a vocation."

"The light in their eyes, their enthusiasm, their experience — I've never seen anything like it."

Spain currently has two million people between the ages of 45 and 64 that are out of work and "have little hope of finding any." So when the bar posted its job ad, it's not surprising that it received 845 applicants for its five positions. Díaz notes that making a decision about who to pick was difficult: "It was hard to choose because I would have taken on 80% of the people we interviewed... The light in their eyes, their enthusiasm, their experience — I've never seen anything like it."

The owner of Entrepanes Díaz is quite unique for only hiring an older demographic. Other restaurants have gotten into trouble for only targeting young people for new positions. Last month, a lawsuit was filed against Olive Garden's sister restaurant Seasons 52 over their failure to hire prospective candidates 40 and over for front and back of house positions due to their age.