While the Nation Moves Toward One Fair Wage, NJ Leaves Women and People of Color Behind (Again)
While the Nation Moves Toward One Fair Wage, NJ Leaves Women and People of Color Behind (Again)
NEW YORK – On the heels of the federal Raise the Wage Act of 2019 – which includes a provision to raise the $2.13 subminimum tipped wage to the full minimum wage, New Jersey Governor Phillip Murphy struck a deal with legislators to raise the state minimum wage to $15 per hour. Unfortunately, while women leaders in the New Jersey legislature called for all workers to be included, the male leadership of the legislature decided that women and people of color who comprise the majority of tipped workers, farmworkers and domestic workers are not worth quite as much as everybody else. The deal proposes to raise the subminimum wage for tipped workers from an embarrassing $2.13 per hour to an insulting $5.13 per hour – in five years.
“As an organization committed to raising wages and improving working conditions in the restaurant industry, we can’t applaud or even stay silent on deals that leave so many behind. We are continuing to work with an outstanding coalition of labor and community organizations dedicated to ensuring that all workers earn $15 in New Jersey. We will not stop to organize with all partners against the continuation of racial and gender discrimination and institutionalized racism,” said Saru Jayaraman, co-founder and president of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United and director of the Food Labor Research Center at UC Berkeley.
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About ROC United
Founded initially after September 11th, 2001 as a worker relief center for affected restaurant workers and their families, the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United) has grown into a national organization with restaurant worker members in New York, California, Boston, Chicago, Michigan, New Orleans, Pennsylvania, Seattle, and Washington, DC. Across the country, the organization has activated 130,000 restaurant workers, employers, and consumers to improve wages and working conditions in the restaurant industry.
Raising the wage and labor standards in the restaurant industry is a matter of economic, social, gender, and racial justice. ROC United is committed to work with workers, employers, consumers, workers’ rights advocates, and legislators to eliminate unjust labor practices dating back to the slavery era, professionalize the industry, and bring dignity to the work and lives of hardworking men and women in some of the lowest paid occupations in the country.
