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/What We Do/Service and Advocacy/Mission Focus Issues/Economic Inequality/Justice for Low-Wage Workers: Support tipped workers

Service and Advocacy > Mission Focus Issues > Economic Inequality > Justice for Low-Wage Workers: Support tipped workers

Justice for Low-Wage Workers

Support tipped workers

"$2.13 is the federal rate for tipped workers; a wage that, due to extensive lobbying led by the Other NRA (National Restaurant Association), hasn't budged since 1991, subjecting countless restaurant workers to live in poverty, forced to depend on the generosity of customers to be able to feed their families. Servers — the vast majority are women — use food stamps at double the rate of the rest of the U.S. workforce and are three times as likely to live in poverty. As a result of living off tips, women tipped workers also face sexual harassment with staggering frequency."
~rocunited.org

  • Read the Reading Program book Link to e-store opens in a new window. Behind the Kitchen Door by Restaurant Organizing Centers United leader Saru Jayaraman.
  • Read the story, Link opens in a new window. Serving up fair wages should be number one tip on umc.org
  • Eat ethically: Download the Link opens in a new window. Diner's Guide to Ethical Eating app to frequent "high road" restaurants that pay fair wages, and monitor racialized hiring practices in restaurants. Use it every time you eat out! Link opens in a new window. More tools at rocunited.org.
  • Find out if there are chapters of Link opens in a new window. Restaurant Organizing Centers United in your community and support them. Learn if there is a legislative campaign in your state to Link opens in a new window. raise tipped wages. As an example, learn about local organizing from Link opens in a new window. ROC-Chicago.  
  • Follow ROC-United on Facebook opens in a new window Facebook and Twitter opens in a new window Twitter.

Support unpaid and paid women workers who are caregivers

"23% of domestic workers are paid below the state minimum wage. 95% of domestic workers are women. 46% of domestic workers are immigrants… Every eight seconds, an American turns 65. In the coming years, more and more members of our communities will need care, just as more and more workers will need quality, dignified jobs. At a time when we desperately need new jobs, new paths to citizenship, and new solutions to persistent crises in care, a broad coalition of people from all walks of life are coming together to push for change."
~domesticworkers.org/caring-across-generations

  • Read Link opens in a new window. The Age of Dignity, Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America by Ai-Jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance.
  • Have a care conversation with your own family. How will you and your loved ones be cared for as they age? Visit Link opens in a new window. Caring Across Generations.
  • Link opens in a new window. Hear domestic workers' stories.
  • If you employ someone in your home, join the Link opens in a new window. Hand in Hand domestic employers' network and Link opens in a new window.pledge to commit to fair wage and workplace standards.
  • Learn the U.S. history of domestic work and its link to current racial justice struggles. Visit Link opens in a new window. We Dream in Black.
  • Learn if there are Link opens in a new window. domestic worker organizations in your community, and support their organizing efforts for dignity and fair wages, including state-level bill of rights legislative campaigns. Find out about effective local organizing efforts by domestic workers that involve the support of faith groups by contacting Link opens in a new window. ARISE-Chicago and the Link opens in a new window. Latino Union of Chicago.
  • Make connections between Link opens in a new window. domestic work and human trafficking,and Link opens in a new window. domestic work and immigrant rights
  • Facebook opens in a new windowFollow the National Domestic Workers Alliance on Facebook

Join efforts to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour.

Interfaith Worker Justice (iwj.org) writes,
"A living wage for an honest day's work. Seems simple, right? Yet for millions of Americans earning minimum wage, this is nothing but a dream. In 2012, a working mother of two earning $7.25 per hour lived below the poverty line. All religious traditions affirm that work contributes to the dignity and worth of a person. Poverty level wages do not instill dignity. We must raise the federal minimum wage to a living wage and index it to inflation so it stays a living wage."

"There is nothing but a lack of social vision to prevent us from paying an adequate wage to every American whether he [or she] is a hospital worker, laundry worker, maid, or day laborer."
~
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

  • Explore the Link opens in a new window. Fight for Fifteen campaign and "like" it on FB ICON Facebook .
  • View the YouTube will open in a new window two-minute video about raising the minimum wage  from Link opens in a new window. Brave New Films.
  • Find out if there is a minimum wage campaign in your community or state and support advocacy efforts.
  • Tell Congress it's time for a moral and just minimum wage! Link opens in a new window. Sign the Interfaith Worker Justice letter.
  • PDF opens in a new window Check out some common myths on iwj.org.

Challenge wage theft

Employers are illegally stealing workers' earned wages.
"Wage theft — rampant in the U.S. — is especially devastating for low-wage workers. Too often, workers' pay is illegally whittled down by undercounting the hours they worked, paying illegal wage rates or taking unauthorized deductions. Many workers are paid in cash, by check without any explanation or calculation, or with a payroll debit card. A recent study found that 41 percent of low-wage workers had illegal deductions taken. Without paystubs for documentation, workers have difficulty proving wage theft."
~iwj.org

  • View a YouTube will open in a new window three-minute video on wage theft. 
  • Learn how faith groups are engaged in supporting workers and fighting wage theft by Link opens in a new window. joining Arise Chicago.
  • Find out if there is a Link opens in a new window. worker center in your community and support its efforts to end wage theft by advocating for individuals who have not been paid.
  • Encourage the U.S. Department of Labor to issue a regulation that all workers covered by the Link opens in a new window. Fair Labor Standards Act must Link opens in a new window. receive paystubs.

Action Resources



Taking Action:
Women and Economic Justice

Click HereEducating Ourselves and Others
Click HereStudent Debt

Click HereMore Economic Justice Resources

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