Episode 202: From Subminimum Wages to One Fair Wage
We have discussed the need to get the federal minimum wage of a meager $7.25 per hour raised to lift many Americans out of poverty. Did you know that tipped workers in 43 states earn a subminimum wage that is extremely low at around $2.13 per hour and when you leave a tip, that counts against the person’s wages? L. Joy is bringing Saru Jayaraman to the front of the class to break down the history of subminimum wages, how they are legal, and how we can get civically engaged around one fair wage for all.
Homework:
Read the Bureau of Labor Statistics report: Characteristics of minimum wage workers, 2020
Check out One Fair Wage a national organization of nearly 300,000 service workers, over 2000 restaurant employers, & dozens of organizations nationwide working together to end all subminimum wages in the United States https://onefairwage.site/
Read Saru Jayaraman’s book One Fair Wage: Ending Subminimum Pay in America https://amzn.to/3TLHRVT
Support restaurants that pay a fair living wage to workers. Raise High Road Restaurants advocates for fair wages and increased racial and gender equity through hiring, training, and promotional practices https://highroadrestaurants.org/
Our Guest:
Saru Jayaraman is the President and Co-Founder of One Fair Wage (OFW), a national organization, campaign and coalition fighting for a full, fair minimum wage for every person who works in America, with tips being a supplement on top of wages rather than the wage itself. She is also the Director of the Food Labor Research Center at University of California, Berkeley and Co-Founder of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United).
After 9/11, together with displaced World Trade Center workers, she co-founded ROC United initially as a workers' relief center, but eventually grew to become a national organization that works to improve wages and working conditions for the nation's nearly 14 million restaurant workers. Saru is a graduate of Yale Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She was listed in CNN’s “Top10 Visionary Women” and recognized as a Champion of Change by the White House in 2014, and a James Beard Foundation Leadership Award in 2015. Saru authored Behind the Kitchen Door (Cornell University Press, 2013), a national bestseller, and most recently Forked: A New Standard for American Dining (Oxford University Press, 2016).
