Restaurant owners have reported difficulty finding workers as many states and cities lift the pandemic restrictions that led to mass layoffs in the sector last year. But the vast majority of restaurant workers say they would stay in the industry if provided with a stable, livable wage, according to a new report from One Fair Wage and the U.C. Berkeley Food Labor Research Center.
The report, “It’s a Wage Shortage, Not a Worker Shortage,” released Wednesday, details the findings of a survey of more than 4,300 restaurant workers between October 2020 and May 2021. The survey was conducted by One Fair Wage, a restaurant worker advocacy group. Of the nearly 3,000 respondents who were employed at the time of the survey, more than 50 percent were considering leaving their restaurant jobs, with 76 percent of them pointing to low wages and tips as the primary reason. Women and mothers were most likely to report considering leaving their jobs and to cite low pay as the reason.
By far the most significant change that would keep those workers in the restaurant workforce, cited by 78 percent of respondents, was a “full, stable, livable wage.” Increased hours and paid sick leave were also highly ranked.
“You can’t run a restaurant without staff,” said Saru Jayaraman, the president of One Fair Wage and director of the Berkeley Food Labor Research Center, on a webinar Wednesday announcing the launch of the report. “It’s time we raise wages and ensure we attract and retain high-quality talent.”
Pre-pandemic, conditions were already difficult for the restaurant workforce. Restaurant workers are more likely than other workforces to rely on federal assistance programs. A majority of restaurant workers are women — a third of whom are mothers — who face high rates of sexual harassment and a persistent wage gap. The federal minimum wage for tipped workers, including restaurant workers, is just $2.13, and only seven states have passed a full minimum wage for tipped workers.
Jillian Melton, a restaurant worker in Tennessee, lost her job during the pandemic after the restaurant she’d worked at for seven years closed. Because her unemployment benefits didn’t account for her tipped wage, Melton received just $109 each week to support herself and her five children. Now heading back into the restaurant workforce, she’s facing erratic scheduling and being asked to serve in multiple roles at once as restaurants attempt to restaff for 50 percent or 75 percent capacity dining.
“Having a living wage, knowing that I could budget, knowing that I could afford to go to work — it means something,” she said on the webinar, which was hosted by One Fair Wage, MomsRising, and the Equal Pay Day Coalition.
Eighty percent of the workers surveyed by One Fair Wage reported having faced hostility over the past year from customers when attempting to follow Covid-19 public health guidance, like insisting that customers wear masks. Sixty percent of workers said they were reluctant to enforce Covid-19 protocols for fear of losing tips. “It was really tough to essentially be the police for people wearing masks,” Heather McIntosh, a restaurant worker in Portland, Maine, said during the webinar.
More than half of restaurant workers who identified as mothers reported facing increased sexual harassment during the pandemic, including being asked by male customers to remove their face masks. “We definitely noticed that our tips were lower if we didn’t,” said McIntosh.
Advocates are pushing Congress to pass the Raise the Wage Act, which would gradually increase the federal minimum wage to $15 from its current level of $7.25, including for tipped workers. The bill was introduced in January by Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia with nearly 200 cosponsors and has been referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.
Read the full report, “It’s a Wage Shortage, Not a Worker Shortage,” here.