ROC-NY, ROC the Bay, and USFSA Members Food Chain Workers Alliance and Food First Call Out Hunger in the Restaurant Industry

Posted on by USFSA

Cruel Irony

Today, ROC-NY along with USFSA members Food Chain Workers Alliance and Food First released a new report, Food Insecurity of Restaurant Workers, a first comprehensive look at food security and employment conditions of workers in the restaurant industry.

The report, based on over 280 surveys and interviews with restaurant workers in New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area, highlights the crucial ways in which restaurant workers’ employment conditions affect their ability to feed themselves.

The report found that:

  • An astonishing 41% of NYC restaurant workers surveyed were food insecure
  • 67% of undocumented restaurant workers surveyed were food insecure
  • Tipped workers in NYC were 30% more likely to be food insecure than their non-tipped counterparts.

While NY’s minimum wage is set to rise to $9 by 2016, tipped workers in New York earn a sub-minimum wage of just $5 per hour.   NY Governor Cuomo has the ability to raise tipped workers’ base pay administratively through a Department of Labor Wage Board.

Citing high rates of food insecurity among tipped restaurant workers, ROC-NY, FCWA, and allies are calling for an elimination of the sub-minimum wage through the Wage Board process.

TAKE ACTION. Support New York’s tipped workers by tweeting at Governor Cuomo. Urge him to appoint a wage board that will listen to the needs of NY’s tipped workers by eliminating the sub-minimum wage and ensuring #1FairWage in New York. UPDATE: Gov. Cuomo has convened the Wage Board. Join us in calling on the Wage Board to eliminate the sub-minimum wage! Here are sample tweets:

  • I join @ROC_NY in calling on @NYGovCuomo’s WageBoard to eliminate the sub #minwage & guarantee #1FairWage in #NY
  • New Study: tipped restaurant workers face high rates of #foodinsecurity. I call on @NYGovCuomo to ensure #1FairWage in #NY
  •  Cruel Irony: #NY‘s tipped workers struggle 2 feed themselves bit.ly/1nsVpTi Time 4 @NYGovCuomo‘s WageBoard to set #1FairWage

The full report is available HERE, and a NY-specific supplement that includes information about NY’s tipped workers is available HERE.