Why the U.S. food sector has by far the most child-labor violations
A FERN analysis of investigation data released by the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD)—which is tasked with enforcing federal child labor laws—found that more than 75 percent of recent violations were committed by employers in the food industry.
Big Tech’s food-delivery apps face a grassroots revolt
At the start of the pandemic, food delivery apps, including the 'Big 3' — Grubhub, Uber Eats, and DoorDash — were hailed as saviors, facilitating a takeout boom meant to keep restaurants and their staffs working. But eateries were quickly confronted by a harsh reality: These Silicon Valley and Wall Street–backed firms, which together dominate 93 percent of the market share nationwide, are designed to scrape money out of local businesses and send it to shareholders. Now, in cities around the country, restaurant owners are fighting back, forming local-delivery co-ops in an attempt to drive the third-party interlopers out.
Scholar describes how high-end restaurants are riven with race and class divisions
When Eli Revelle Yano Wilson applied for a job as a server at a white-tablecloth restaurant in Los Angeles, management had plenty of questions for him. “Name three brands of IPA,” he remembers them asking. “How would you explain béarnaise sauce to a customer?” At a webinar hosted Wednesday by the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor & Employment, Wilson, now a sociology professor, confessed to the audience, “I still don’t really understand what béarnaise sauce is.“
Restaurant workers would stay in the industry if wages rose, new report finds
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.
New map shows which states are vaccinating food workers
As the Covid-19 vaccine becomes more widely available, the workers who pick, pack, process, sell, and serve our food have been placed in a range of vaccination priority groups. With FERN's new map, you can search to see where these workers are currently eligible to be vaccinated and, where they're not, when they will become eligible. (No paywall)
Coronavirus devastates restaurant workers who live ‘tip to mouth’
As restaurants around the country close or shift to delivery only, "millions of laid-off ... workers, many who made just $2.13 an hour plus tips — the federal minimum wage for tipped workers — are scrambling to pay their bills and feed their families," as Liza Gross reports in FERN's latest story. (No paywall)
D.C. city council may overturn voter measure on tipped minimum wage
In a packed hearing that ran into the late evening, Washington, D.C.’s city council debated Monday whether the council should repeal a recently-passed ballot initiative to raise the city’s tipped minimum wage. Initiative 77, passed in June by District voters, would raise the tipped minimum wage to match the non-tipped minimum wage by 2026.