Report: 90 percent of restaurant workers not offered health insurance or sick days

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/12938

Submitted by Jesse Russell on February 12, 2010 - 2:06pm
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Ninety percent of restaurant workers are not offered health insurance or sick days. That’s according to restaurant worker advocacy organization Restaurant Opportunities Centers United. In 2008 the average earnings for workers in the industry were less than $13,000. Two thousand five hundred workers were surveyed in five cities and 38 percent said they are forced to work off the clock. The federal minimum wage for wait staff has remained at $2.13 per hour since 1991.

[LisaM]

1. On top of everything else that's wrong with this

this system costs diners a lot more. The expected tip rate has gone way up - I generally tip between 18% and 20% (which is a little high), but the day of the 10% tip is long, long gone in the US. Not true in Europe, where the waitstaff makes more, and the diner tips less.

[Go2Peace]

29. Only in America. This is not a "corporations" problem, it is an AMERICAN problem

[leftstreet]

2. K&R

3...2...1 until a handfull of limo liberals start talking about the importance of tipping

[eeyore]

7. Limo LIberals?

Please explain how tipping is an elite action. It's the only thing that makes food service a job with a living wage. Seems like a working class issue to me.

[Blue-Jay]

11. If you can't afford to tip, eat at home

Fair or not, your tip is clearly part of the wait staff's wages under the current system. Or do you think $2.13 is an adequate wage to serve you?

We should all be supporting fellow members of the working class while working to improve their labor conditions. How is that being a limo liberal?

I'm broke so I stay home.

[KonaKane]

15. Tipping isn't icing on the cake. It IS the cake.

I'm not sure whether you know this already and are being snarky, or you really thought that people can live on $2.13 an hour.

[endless october]

3. forcing food handlers to come in sick should be illegal.

it's not safe. i don't know anyone who wants someone sick to make their food. how do the state boards of health allow policies like this? they fine those places for mishandling the ice scoop. but someone sick can legally make a sandwich? that makes no sense.

[demosincebirth]

4. Its not news to me. There is only one restaurant in the East Bay, that I know of, that

the employees are unionized. Its not a fancy place, they specialize in ribs and breakfast.

[sandnsea]

5. And most don't pay minimum wage either n/t

[MineralMan]

6. Great! So people handling my food are coming in sick so they

don't lose money. I'm so pleased!

[eeyore]

9. It's been that way your whole life....

Guaranteed. In food service if you don't come to work you don't get paid.

[TwixVoy]

8. People need REAL jobs!!!

The fu**ing country can not be run on the "service sector".

I ask again - where are the jobs? The banks got theirs - now what about everyone else?

[KittyWampus]

10. I know quite a few waiters and bartenders who consider what they do a profession

and quite definitely a "real" job.

[TwixVoy]

14. It's not a DECENT job

that pays a livable wage, provides health insurance, and other benefits that people NEED these days.

There are some in the food service sector who have those things, but they are an extreme minority.

Most of the people in the service sector are there due to lack of jobs in other sectors being available to them. Don't tell me otherwise. I actually worked retail for many years and that describes the view of 95% of the people I worked with. Maybe 5% considered it a "career" they wanted to stick with. Those 5% were also usually teens or early 20 year olds who didn't know better yet either and were still living at home with mom and dad.... thus they thought minimum wage and 20 hours a week was great money.

[KonaKane]

16. That's not the fault of the servers, now is it.

[TwixVoy]

17. Where did I say it was smart one?

I said we need to create jobs possibilities for these people outside of the service sector because these "service" jobs don't provide even basic needs like health care. What exactly do you disagree with?

[lildreamer316]

23. BTW, try waiterrant . com sometime.

He parlayed his 'non-real-job' into a book.

[KittyWampus]

27. The restaurants here, and there are many, open seasonally. The staff moves from here in the summer

to Colorado in the winter. Or now, Costa Rica. These are usually younger adults. They make good money and have a ball.

In Manhattan, I know of many waiters and restaurant staff who've been at the same establishment for many years. Put their kids through college.

When I was in University, there are diners where the same waitresses worked for many years. Atmosphere like family.

Not denying that working the drive-through or at a Las Vegas joint for minimum wage falls into those categories. But the picture is much larger.

[juno jones]

18. Don't forget cooks as well.

:) I studied hard under masters of my profession to do what I do. I really don't want to do anything else (except be financially set and maybe sit around with the cats all day :D, don't we all?) and trust me, I am a cook for a reason, you really don't want me in a position to teach your kids or take care of you when you're ill, I'm too honest to sit at a desk and deny insurance claims all day or screw people over via banking tricks. Most of us are intelligent enough to know we aren't cut out for what is rewarded in our society. And there are a lot of people out there working restaurants who posess degrees in fields unrelated to food. So we aren't dumb by any means. Just horribly underpaid.


In another thread someone was tossing off some glib comment about 'burger flippers'. I'd love to dare some of these 'get a REAL job' people to do what I do for a day or two and see that it takes much more training and physical stamina than most of them could muster.

Our wages have not only stagnated, but fallen since the 80's. Oddly enough, this has happened just as it has become necessary to go to school to get restaurant training, meaning you have to have a cert. or degree to get an entry level $9.50 an hour job as a prep cook. Back in the 80's guys with my experience got 14.00-17.00 an hour. Now we're lucky to get 10 or 11.

[Dappleganger]

24. Good point.

And even after the certification you still get no respect!

[Hello_Kitty]

13. Yep. Handing each other burgers is not an economy. eom

[SoCalDem]

12. or "real" hourly wages...n/t

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pleah]

20. K&R

[lib_n_proud7650]

21. Truly appaling

[Omaha Steve]

22. Kick

[justabob]

25. it is all true

Some companies like Brinker offer insurance, but it is the type that is too expensive to actually use. Every restaurant I have worked in has had the policy that even if sick, the waiter has to find someone to work for them or drag themselves in.... otherwise they face a charge of no call no show which brings possible write up and/or dismissal. It can be very difficult to get a shift covered if you come down with a cold overnight, and generally waiters can't afford to be sick.... So we drag ourselves in. I am not saying it is right, but it is the way it is.

That the wage for waiters hasn't gone up since 1991 is what really gets me... 2.13 an hour? Once upon a time the waiter wage was tied to min wage. I think waiter rate was half of regular minimum...it would be really great if we could get back to that because it would make a difference.

[Maine-ah]

26. I think the rules vary by state

in Maine, it's half minimum wage. If you don't make at least minimum wage by the end of the week, the restaurant has to make up the rest of the money in your check.

I work for a large chain restaurant. We have health insurance, life insurance etc...(it's not great, but certainly better than nothing) I am a bartender and an hourly paid member of management. I make $7.50 an hour on the bar plus tips, and $13 an hour when I'm managing.

I plan on making this a career. Not my first choice, but I have been in the industry for 15 years now from either running a restaurant, to food service, and back to what I am doing now. I am working my way up. Planning on taking over the world ;-) Salaried management starts around 40k a year, plus plenty of vacation time.

As for sick days, yeah, it's cover your shift if you can. Generally we won't write someone up if they are sick and no one will cover the shift. But we do all come in sick because for the most part we can't afford to lose the shift. Doctors notes are required for some situations, depending on the illness. For example, We've had a bit of bronchitis running around this year. Can't come back with out a note for that one.

The funny thing is, is that it's the small folks that don't offer up bennies. So many people here bitch about corporations, chain restaurants....yet it's my experience that the small mom & pop restaurants are the ones that work you to death, off the clock, fire you in a heartbeat.... I know it's just anecdotal, but it is what I see in this area. I do know it's not that way for all mom & pops.

[Raschel]

28. I never understood why customers are expected to pay for the restaurant's employees.

They don't pay their employees a decent wage, then they expect the people who give patronize their business to make up for it?

What a scam. And yes, I tip, and have also been a server.