{"id":2187,"date":"2012-08-23T03:36:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T03:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/plight_of_restaurant_workers_making_dining_out_unappetizing\/"},"modified":"2021-04-05T07:40:21","modified_gmt":"2021-04-05T07:40:21","slug":"plight_of_restaurant_workers_making_dining_out_unappetizing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/plight_of_restaurant_workers_making_dining_out_unappetizing\/","title":{"rendered":"Plight of restaurant workers making dining out unappetizing &#8211; National Consumers League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- content_before_flip_start --><\/p>\n<p>It was recently restaurant week here in Washington, DC, when participating restaurants make dining out a little more affordable by offering discounted price-fixed meals. Eating out is a special treat for many consumers, but what about workers? NCL staff hit the streets leafletting downtown DC to let restaurant customers in on some facts about what workers in the industry experience &#8212; and it turned many consumers&#8217; stomachs.<\/p>\n<p><!-- content_before_flip_end --><\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve never worked in the restaurant industry, these facts might surprise you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>88 percent of more than 4,300 restaurant workers surveyed by Restaurant Opportunities Center report not having paid sick days so they often come to work sick to earn a paycheck. That means sick employees who should be at home resting are handling your food.<\/li>\n<li>When customers leave a tip on the credit card receipt, servers don\u2019t always get the full tip: it may go to pay part of the credit card fee or the restaurant may keep part.<\/li>\n<li>90 percent of surveyed restaurant workers \u2013 servers, bartenders, bussers \u2013 receive no health insurance through their employers.<\/li>\n<li>When you eat out, you are subsidizing the restaurant industry\u2019s low wages. Restaurant servers don\u2019t receive the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour \u2013 they get only \u00a0$2.13 the federal tipped minimum wage. That wage has been the same for 21 years.<\/li>\n<li>The median wage for restaurant workers is $8.90 an hour, just below the poverty line for a family of three.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Pretty shocking, isn\u2019t it? These numbers may make dining out a little less appetizing. Is there anything consumers can do? Thankfully, there is. Here\u2019s what you can do \u2014 and remember, you can always cast your \u201cvote\u201d for restaurant workers with your wallet; don\u2019t patronize restaurants that don\u2019t treat their workers fairly \u2014 and be sure to tell them why you\u2019re taking your patronage to places that do!<\/p>\n<p>What you can do to help:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Inquire whether your favorite restaurants allow their staffs to earn sick leave. Did you know that 63 percent of surveyed restaurant workers admitted to cooking or serving food while sick at some point during the past year? This is a public safety issue as much as it is a workers\u2019 rights one.<\/li>\n<li>Pay your tip in cash so it will all go to your server<\/li>\n<li>Inquire whether your favorite restaurants provide access to health insurance<\/li>\n<li>Urge your favorite restaurants to join with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/rabble.ca\/toolkit\/software\/roc-uniteds-diners-guide-and-ethicalconsumerorg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more than 50 other restaurant owners in 8 cities that have partnered with ROC<\/a>\u00a0to promote improved wages and working conditions for workers who cook, prepare and serve our food.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocunited.org\/\">ROC United<\/a>, or Restaurant Opportunities Centers United \u2013 an organization representing restaurant workers \u2013 is asking restaurant owners to become members of the\u00a0<em>Restaurant Industry Roundtable<\/em>\u00a0to support higher wages for tipped and non-tipped workers, to provide sick leave and health insurance for all employees, and to provide opportunities to move up the ladder for all workers.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/plum-line\/post\/the-minimum-wage-as-a-campaign-issue\/2012\/07\/27\/gJQA3IISEX_blog.html\">And a new bill in Congress would raise the federal minimum wage for tipped employees for the first time in decades<\/a>. Remember your power as a consumer and exercise it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was recently restaurant week here in Washington, DC, when participating restaurants make dining out a little more affordable by offering discounted price-fixed meals. Eating out is a special treat [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2187"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18589,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187\/revisions\/18589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}