Papa Louie’s criminal empire

At the start of all the Papa Louie cooking games, he managed to coax your poor unaware character into working at one of his many food franchises. The fact that he’ll often have to trick your character into working there should be a warning sign, but in case you didn’t catch that I’m sure him leaving you by yourself with no instructions and an entire restaurant to operate will make you realise that something’s up. From day one of your new job you’re on your own. No manager, no supervision, just you and the long line of customers you have to deal with every day.

To make matters worse, your character is severely underpaid in the lower ranks of the game. By the end of the first week of work you’ve probably earned enough points to rise a few ranks and up your pay a bit. Let’s say you’ve managed to gain four ranks in a weeks, your first pay check would be a measly $120. This $120 is all that Papa’s giving you for seven full days of work. If we assume the game runs on a standard 8 hour work day and you get time and a half pay for the two weekends you work, then that means you’re getting paid $1.87 per hour on weekdays, and $2.80 per hour on weekends. If we compare this to America’s minimum wage which is 7.25 per hour, it shows that papa Louie is paying you almost 4x less than he should be. Sure, there are tips, but it really doesn’t make up for it and you’re forced to spend your hard earned money on more decorations from this restaurant you’ve been scammed into working for. Seriously, who makes their employees buy decor for their job out of their own pocket? Papa Louie, that’s who.

Now let’s get back to the point that you’re completely deserted on the very first day of your new job. Most companies when hiring new people will provide a training course to make sure that all employees know what they’re supposed to be doing, especially places like restaurants because employees need to know how to operate potentially dangerous machinery. Instead your character rocks up to work and is just expected to know how to work mixers, deep friers and other potentially hazardous equipment. This is a massive breach of OHS because of the health risk of untrained employees, and if anything does go wrong there’s nobody else working there to call for help if it’s needed. The only time you ever see Papa other than at the start of the game is when he occasionally comes in to order food once you’ve reached a high enough day. What’s Papa doing when he comes to see you? He really has no need to order food at his own restaurant so it must be something else. Has he come to see if you’re successful? To dispose of you if you no longer serve a purpose in his grand scheme? Nobody knows, maybe there’s a reason there aren’t any other employees to hear your screams once Papa comes for you.

So let’s look at the list of criminal offences and sketchy activity we’ve come up with so far

Severly underpaying workers

Untrained employees

No managers/supervisors in the workplace

No correspondence with employees after hiring

Forcing employees to work full hours, seven days a week

Manipulating people into working for him

Many breaches of OHS (occupational health and safety)

Making employees buy decoration for the company out of pocket

You’d think that with a list that long of iffy behaviour and many public restaurants Papa surely would have been reported to authorities by now right? And to be honest he probably has, but with the amount of money he gets from 20+ restaurants and not paying his workers, Papa is probably rich enough to bribe or have killed anyone who gets in his way. The local Police probably fear him. What exactly does Papa Louie’s underground crime circle do? Nobody really knows, if you found out Papa would probably have to kill you.

In case anyone skipped to the end or needs more convincing, this criminally awful outfit Papa wears is probably enough to get him behind bars anyway: