“Spell-binding!” “Wow!!” “The finest organizing mind of anyone I’ve heard speak in decades! Maybe ever!” These were among the reactions to our July 22 Arts & Culture speaker, Saru Jayaraman.
The high-energy afternoon began with her question to the audience: “Did you eat at a restaurant recently?” Virtually all hands went up. People in the United States frequent food and drink establishments more often than those in any other country. Yet, rarely do we stop and think about the working conditions of those who prepare and serve our food. Saru Jayaraman explained, in a breathtaking talk, why we should.
Ms. Jayaraman is Director of UC Berkeley Food Labor Research Center and founding president of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United). ROC United’s mission is to improve wages and working conditions for the nearly 13 million workers in the restaurant industry.
Second only to retail in its number of U.S. private sector employees, the rapidly growing restaurant industry includes 7 of the 10 lowest-paying occupations listed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Only 7 states, including California, offer the minimum wage to tipped workers.
The federal sub-minimum wage for tipped workers has remained at $2.13 for over 25 years. In a ROC United Survey national survey, 90 per cent of restaurant workers reported that they do not have paid sick days. Two thirds revealed that they have never been promoted to higher-paying jobs, and still fewer had received advanced job training.
Racial discrimination is prevalent, and in states that offer the minimum wage, people of color are not getting the higher paying jobs. The Bay Area race-wage gap is among the nation’s highest, at over $5.00/hour. The U.S. restaurant industry also has the highest rate of sexual harassment complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Ms. Jayaraman has been active in efforts to improve these conditions for over 17 years. A graduate of Yale Law School and Harvard Kennedy School of Government, she co-founded the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York with Fekkak Mamdouh, following the 9/11 tragedy. Their work expanded nationally with the creation of the Restaurant Opportunities Center United in 2008. Ms. Jayaraman is the author of two books, Behind the Kitchen Door and Forked: A New Standard of American Dining.
Among ROC’s victories, Saru shared with us one story few of us had heard before. Earlier this year, the current U.S. Department of Labor drafted a regulation that would have required employees of every restaurant in the U.S. to turn over all their tips to the restaurant owner. Thanks to ROC and its supporters, over 400,000 comments showered the Labor Department. The proposal was dropped.
Ms. Jayaraman’s dazzling presentation to the Ashby Village audience inspired them to ask what they could do. She offered several suggestions:
- Learn more and spread the word. Help educate others on this issue. And leave your tips in cash so wait staff need not pay their restaurant’s credit card fee.
- Get involved in Restore Oakland, a new community center created to drive investment in jobs and education, offering job training at the on-site COLORS restaurant, job placement, business incubation, and restorative justice.
- Contribute to ROC United’s efforts to work for equity. ROC United offers training to local establishments in “High-Road Restaurant” strategies for fair wages, paid sick leave, and internal mobility.
- Support efforts, such as the OneFairWage campaign, to get out the vote in states where referenda for raising the tip wage are on the ballot. “In states like Michigan, where referenda are on the 2018 ballot, or like the one that just won in Washington D.C.,” Saru explained, “we encourage voters, including people who usually don’t vote, to go to the polls this time and “Vote Yourself a Raise!”
“I don’t think any of us will ever be able to go out to eat again without thinking about some of what we learned here today,” concluded Rochelle Lefkowitz, co-chair with Marcia Freedman of the Ashby Village Arts & Culture Series, “This work is a bright spot in our dark time.”
Thanks go out to Northbrae Church for hosting the event, to those who organized the event: Ashby Village Board Members Rochelle Lefkowitz and Marcia Freedman; Arts & Culture Group members Joanne Carder, Irene Marcos, and Betty Webster; Ashby Village Events Coordinator Sigrid Duesberg; Outreach Volunteers who greeted attendees and brought their question cards to the front of the room: Alison Colgan, Kristina Holland, Dagmar Friedman, Joanne Carder, and Sigrid Duesberg; photographers NancyRubin and Peter Sussman; and videographer, Howard Kirsch.
If you missed this event, you can check out photos from the event on the Ashby Village Facebook page and find her talk in its entirety on the AV You Tube page (coming soon).
Join us on Sunday, October 28 for the next AV Arts & Culture event, “Single Payer & Universal Coverage in California: The Rocky Road Ahead,” a presentation by Richard Sheffler, Professor of Health Economics and Public Policy at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and the Goldman School of Public Policy.