Discrimination and Disparity in the Food Service Sector

Transcription

1 Restaurats ad Race Discrimiatio ad Disparity i the Food Service Sector By Saru Jayarama alk ito ay fie-diig restaurat i a America urba ceter ad you will observe: white workers servig ad bar- Wtedig; workers of color clearig tables, preparig food, ad washig dishes. Like the segregated buses of the Jim Crow South, the restaurat idustry has reserved the best jobs i the frot for whites, while workers of color are relegated to the back (uless they are bussig tables i the frot). Both restaurat workers ad employers admit that this stark divide alog color lies is commoly accepted idustry practice based o otios of skills, table maers, laguage ability, ad appearace. Thaks to a legal framework that demads proof of discrimiatory itet, this obvious form of segregatio has existed mostly uchalleged util recetly. With over 10 millio employees, the restaurat idustry is the atio s secod largest private sector employer just behid retail ad the largest part of the atio s food system. The idustry cotiues to grow rapidly, eve as other sectors declie durig the curret ecoomic crisis, ad is cosidered a gateway of opportuity for immigrats ad low-wage workers of color from all over the world. However, research shows that i the coutry s largest urba areas, oly about 20 percet of all restaurat idustry jobs provide livig wages ad beefits. (There are some istaces of waiters ad barteders at fie-diig places i urba ceters earig betwee $50,000 ad $150,000 aually.) With less tha.01 percet uio desity atiowide, the idustry mostly provides low- ad poverty-wage jobs with little access to beefits. I 2010, the media hourly wage for restaurat workers atiowide was $8.86, which meas that over half of all restaurat workers eared less tha the poverty wage of $8.90 for a family of three. Also, accordig to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the three lowest-paid occupatios i America i 2009 were to be foud i the restaurat idustry. ROC: A Worker Uio Bor of Tragedy I April 2002, the Restaurat Opportuities Ceter (ROC) was fouded i New York, to provide support to restaurat workers displaced from the World Trade Ceter by the evets of September 11. ROC has sice grow to iclude over 7000 members i eight localities atiowide ad egages i workplace justice campaigs, cooperative restaurat developmet, orgaizig of resposible employer parters, ad participatory research ad policy work at the local ad federal levels. From 4,323 surveys of restaurat workers atiowide ad over 240 employer iterviews, ROC has cocluded that workers of color i the restaurat idustry are subject to a miimum of $3 wage differetial (or race tax ) from their white couterparts. I every urba area that ROC studied, workers of color were segregated by segmet (overrepreseted i fast food restaurats ad uderrepreseted i fie-diig) ad by positio (overrepreseted behid the kitche door or relegated to busser ad ruer positios i the frot), which essetially kept them i lower-payig jobs with less access to beefits. I a study coducted from , ROC discovered that of the 200 pairs of job applicats (white ad people of color) they set to fie-diig restaurats, white workers were twice as likely to obtai livig-wage positios. Eve holdig accet costat, people of color were questioed about their qualificatios at three times the rate of white workers. ROC also foud that a strog Europea accet (eve if icomprehesible) was a advatage to obtaiig oe of these livig-wage positios, whereas a Third World accet was a serious detrimet. 7 Race, Poverty & the Eviromet Vol. 18 No

2 Work Color/Geder Segregatio: A Natiowide Malaise Whe ROC replicated its study i urba areas aroud the coutry, it discovered that segregatio ad discrimiatio i hirig ad promotio was quite commoplace. I Miami, for example, segregatio alog ski color lies is very obvious eve more tha alog race or ethicity. Whites ad lightskied Latios typically serve ad barted, while darker-skied Latios are more likely to be bussig ad ruig food to tables, or preparig food i the kitche alog with Africa Americas. Haitias, the darkest, poorest, ad most vulerable populatio i Miami, are almost always the dishwashers the lowest-paid positio i the restaurat. The segregatio is further cofirmed by wage differetials uearthed by ROC s early 600 surveys of restaurat workers i Miami-Dade Couty: the reported media wage was $11.29 for whites, $10.00 for Latios, $9.00 for o-haitia Blacks, ad $8.21 for Haitias. Also, ROC foud the segregatio ad disparity eve greater for wome of color who face the double oppressio of race ad geder discrimiatio i a very male-domiated sector. I every city surveyed, wome of color were more heavily cocetrated i fast food restaurats tha the overall survey popula 8 Photo: New York City restaurat worker. Courtesy of Restaurat Opportuities Ceter (ROC) Perhaps the most isidious fidig of all i ROC s atiowide study was that segregatio is fully expected ad accepted i the idustry. Iterviews with hudreds of employers ad workers revealed that both groups foud it completely atural that white workers were almost always foud i the highest-paid positios. Employers ad several white workers agreed that workers of color lacked the skills, table talk (the ability to coverse easily ad relate to a wealthy white clietele), ad/or appearace to succeed as fiediig waiters ad barteders. Iterviews with workers of color, however, revealed that may were traiig less-experieced white workers who the immediately surpassed them ito waitstaff ad bartedig positios that paid up to five times more tha what they were earig as bussers. Restaurat Daiel: ROC s First Victory I 2005, several Latio ad Bagladeshi ruers ad bussers from Restaurat Daiel, New York City s oly four-star restaurat, approached ROC with the complait that they had bee repeatedly passed over for promotio to wait staff ad barteders by iexperieced white workers. The differece i salary was literally five times greater bussers ad ruers ear betwee $20-$30,000, whereas waiters ad barteders ca ear aroud $150,000 aually. Followig a large-scale public campaig ad litigatio i federal court, which resulted i a two-page cover story i the Diig Sectio of the New York Times, Restaurat Daiel moved to promote several of the bussers ad ruers. Most importatly, the restaurat developed a ew promotios policy moitored by the Equal Employmet Opportuities Commissio (EEOC), which compelled maagemet to iform all workers of ew opeigs ad to provide traiig that would allow workers to advace ito these positios. This came as a result of a key fidig about the lack of trasparecy with regard to job opeigs. Workers of color rarely kew about potetial opportuities for traiig or promotio to jobs for which white workers were hired from the outside. I essece, the lack of formalized career ladders makes it possible for restaurat employers to use such dubious criteria for hirig ad promotio as table talk ad appearace, which is thily disguised racial bias. The frequetly cited laguage ability ad accet criteria were show to be patetly false i the Restaurat Daiel case, i which may iexperieced ew Frech immigrats were almost immediately placed o the diig floor as waiters. Race, Poverty & the Eviromet Vol. 18 No

3 tio, ad i most cities they suffered a $5 media wage differetial (race ad geder tax) from the overall survey populatio. I several locatios, racial segregatio by segmet ad positio was further compouded by geographical segregatio. For example, i the Detroit metropolita regio, low-wage workers of color must commute log distaces with little or o access to public trasportatio for livig-wage jobs i the suburbs where they face tremedous discrimiatio. Oe restaurat worker i Detroit claimed that applyig for a job at a fie-diig restaurat i Troy, a suburb of Detroit, elicited the query: You re ot plaig o eatig here, are you? She was also told that the restaurat had ever hired a Africa America i its 10-year history. ROC s Ogoig Campaig ROC has take the followig steps to address racial segregatio ad discrimiatio i the restaurat idustry: Developed policy iitiatives that pealize discrimiatio ad icetivize iteral promotio, icludig the postig of ew job opeigs i livig-wage positios. I Detroit, ROC helped develop local legislatio that would compel the city to cosider employmet discrimiatio i gratig a local liquor licese. I New York, ROC recogized resposible restaurat owers who siged a Code of Coduct ad offered iteral promotio ad trasparecy i the hirig ad promotio process, icludig postig ew job opeigs i livig-wage positios. ROC promoted these employers amog coscietious cosumers ad local elected officials so that they may be grated city-based icetives, such as expedited licese processig. Worked with resposible employers over several years to develop formalized career ladders ad advaced job traiig programs for low-wage workers of color to move ito livig-wage jobs at fie-diig restaurats. The idea is to ecourage the idustry to cosider iteral promotio based o skill ad achievemet rather tha o subjective bias. The cocept of a worker earig a certificate of promotio from busser to waiter had ever before bee cosidered withi this iformal idustry. Cotiued wagig campaigs agaist segregatio ad discrimiatio at high-profile restaurats as we did with Restaurat Daiel to iform the idustry that there will be cosequeces for segregatio ad discrimiatio based o race, ad that the curret racially-divided state of the idustry is uacceptable. The cover story i the Times Diig Sectio sparked a vigorous debate withi the idustry ad elicited a tremedous outpourig of gratitude from workers. Implemeted ogoig research to documet ad publicize through traditioal ad ewer media the plight of workers of color i the food service sector ad the public health cosequeces of havig low-wage workers without access to healthcare or paid sick leave preparig ad servig food. (I oe restaurat worker survey, more tha twothirds of the 4,323 respodets reported cookig ad servig food while sick.). Movig Forward: The Two-Proged Approach Eve if racial bias were to vaish etirely from the restaurat idustry, it would be impossible for most workers of color to ear a livig wage, primarily because oly about 20 percet of all available jobs pay that much. So the fight for equal opportuity has to happe i tadem with the fight for a livig wage. Ad util we cofrot these social ad ecoomic disparities, all Americas will cotiue to suffer the moral, ecoomic, ad public health cosequeces of a segregated food service idustry. Photo: 9 New York City restaurat worker. Courtesy of Restaurat Opportuities Ceter (ROC) Saru Jayarama is co-fouder of the Restaurat Opportuities Ceter Uited (ROC-Uited) ad Assistat Professor of Public Law i the Departmet of Political Sciece at Brookly College. Race, Poverty & the Eviromet Vol. 18 No

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