'Tipped Over The Edge' Report Shows Women In Restaurant Industry Face Harassment, Discrimination, Lower Wages

The Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC), working in concert with other labor advocacy groups, released a report ("Tipped Over The Edge") this week on the state of women in the restaurant industry. The findings aren't encouraging. The report says that that women continue to face systematic discrimination in the industry -- and that they still make far less less money than their male counterparts.

The report explains that the federal subminimum wage -- the hourly base pay that tipped workers receive -- has been frozen at $2.13 since 1991. Seventy one percent of restaurant servers are female and, according to the report, they are paid 68 perfect of what male servers make. For that reason, "Tipped Over The Edge" recommends raising the tipped minimum wage to address both the inadequacy and inequity of pay for women. ROC and its co-authors suggest increasing the subminimum wage to $5.08 to reduce the gender wage equity gap.

Beyond lower pay, female restaurant workers are also subjected to sexual harassment. ROC surveyed 4,300 restaurant workers nationwide and found that more than 10 percent reported that they or a co-worker had experienced sexual harassment in their restaurant.

"Tipped Over The Edge" suggests eight policy recommendations that could alleviate financial burdens and allow more protection of female workers. They include: establish a national standard for sick days, support job-training programs and support further study on discrimination.

To learn more, read the full report here.

Comments

[daigz]

01:53 PM on 02/15/2012

It's easy for people to forget that tipping is basically the only place that servers make money. There's a reason why we get angry when someone stiffs us or leaves a less than 10% tip. Once in a while, I'll have a night of decent tips, but that only makes up for the fact that there are nights when maybe one table comes in and we're still only getting paid 2 bucks an hour. Not to mention the fact that actual 'serving' is only one part of the job..

[Karl Wilder]

11:20 AM on 02/15/2012

That sub minimum wage needs to end. Restaurant owners take great advantage of servers.

[cameron d]

01:55 AM on 02/15/2012

Not saying it's right, but isn't it the same in every other workplace too?

[grailknight]

08:28 PM on 02/14/2012

And what restauranteur, chef, cook, server, busser, hostess, or dish dog didn't know this?

[Chefrob88]

06:17 PM on 02/14/2012

Uhm...duh.

[laurenproof12]

05:07 PM on 02/14/2012

When will these writers stop making grammer and spelling mistakes? I mean, its one thing for me to do it, but these people are supposed to be professionals, its terrible.