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Tavis Smiley: My Conversation on the Fight for $15 with Saru Jayaraman

Saru explains why the food industry, despite being one of the most profitable industries in the country, pays its workers such low wages -- the federal tipped minimum wage, for example, which goes to workers who are expected to receive tips (like servers in restaurants), is still just $2.13 per hour.
Tavis Smiley
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PBS talk show host, PRI radio host, NYT bestselling author

PBS talk show host, PRI radio host, NYT bestselling author
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Tonight, a week after some 60,000 workers in over 200 cities walked off the job on April 15th in what is being called the largest low-wage protest in American history, I'm joined by Saru Jayaraman, Director of the Food Labor Research Center at UC Berkeley and Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United) to discuss the aims of the movement.

In the clip below, Saru explains why the food industry, despite being one of the most profitable industries in the country, pays its workers such low wages -- the federal tipped minimum wage, for example, which goes to workers who are expected to receive tips (like servers in restaurants), is still just $2.13 per hour.

For more of our conversation, be sure to tune in to Tavis Smiley on PBS. Check our website for your local TV listings: www.pbs.org/tavis.

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