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It Sucks To Be A Female Restaurant Worker, Says Report
By
Garth Johnston
Published Feb 14, 2012
Modified Feb 14, 2012
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Feb 14, 2012
Modified Feb 14, 2012
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No question, being a waiter is hard—especially on Valentine's Day! But you know what is even harder? Being a waiter with two x chromosomes. According to a new study, Tipped Over The Edge — Gender Inequity in the Restaurant Industry, not only do female restaurant employees face "systemic discrimination" they also get paid less, have fewer sick days and can expect to see five times more harassment than the general female workforce. Not helping things? The fact that "the federal minimum wage for servers and other tipped workers" has been frozen at $2.13 per hour for the past 20 years.
The report (you can read the whole PDF here) goes on to show that the frozen tipped minimum wage unfairly targets women ("Since 52% of all restaurant workers are women, but 66% of tipped workers are women, the lower minimum wage for tipped workers is essentially creating legalized gender inequity in the restaurant industry."). By law servers who earn tips can be paid $2.13 an hour as long as their tips close the gap between minimum wage—but many restaurants ignore the second part of that.
The report also notes that by design, the restaurant industry pushes women into lower-paid positions (waitresses, hostesses) while keeping them away from higher profile jobs—only 19 percent of chefs are women, "even though traditionally most women are more likely to do a majority of the cooking at home."
The whole report is a doozy, but the most depressing part is the sexual harassment. How toxic is the restaurant industry for women? Bad enough that "Nearly 37 percent of all sexual harassment charges filed by women with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) come from the restaurant industry—more than 5 times the rate for the general female workforce." It's unclear what percentage of those took place at Hawaiian Tropic Zone.
Tagged
gender inequality
restaurant industry
restaurants
waiters
Waitresses
women
Garth Johnston
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