by: RDemocrat
Mon Feb 15, 2010 at 12:37:12 PM EST
With the apparent death of manufacturing in America the service industry has taken over as a major employer in our country. With over 13 million workers, the restaurant industry seems to be particularly booming. However, unfortunately for the young folks growing up in this "Lost Generation" for jobs, these jobs are thankless and provide little in the way of wages, benefits and job security.
A new report by Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC), an advocate group for restaurant workers, reveals that up to 90 percent of restaurant staff is not offered health insurance or sick days and, as a result, many report to work sick.
A substantial number are forced to work "off the clock" and the national median hourly wage for food preparation and service workers is only $8.59, including tips, which means that half of all restaurant workers nationwide actually earn less.
These are poverty level wages with no benefits. Despite all the corporate welfare flying around our country these businesses treat their employees as virtual slaves. They also create a huge strain on the American economy:
The report also finds that low wages and lack of job security among restaurant workers leads to increased reliance on social assistance programs resulting in an indirect subsidy to employers engaging in low road practices and fewer such public resources available to all those in need.
When the minimum wage was passed last time, an attempt was made to raise minimum wage for wait staff and increase their tip credit but of course that attempt was thwarted by big business and their apologists in the Congress:
One recommendation to improve restaurant jobs is to raise the federal minimum wage for wait staff, which has been at $2.13 since 1991. In theory, the workers earn enough tips to bring them up to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
Worker advocates tried to boost what is known as the tip credit, when legislation to raise the minimum wage was passed in 2007. But the restaurant industry and Republican lawmakers were able to block the effort.
If the only jobs that are going to be created in America are going to be service-type restaurant jobs, then these jobs simply have to be more lucrative for those who work them.
These poverty-level wages with no benefits are not going to support a whole new generation of workers without them living in poverty. Long have the big names in the food service industry made booming profits and shared little with the workers who made them possible.
Even many educated young folks are forced to work these jobs, especially in the state of this economy. This is why we need the Employee Free Choice Act to give these folks a fair shake. Any talk of a union in these places and one is immediatlely fired, but nowhere in America is unionisation needed more than the service industry.
It is time that all workers were treated with respect and we rewarded work, not merely wealth in this country. With more folks working under the poverty line than ever, we simply must increase wages in this country.
One reason they have stagnated is the increasing greed of the service sector businesses. It is time we gave Americans working in these tiring, thankless jobs the rights they deserve and made it easier for them to organize themselves for a brighter future for their families.
As progressive Democrats, the Rightardia staff does not frequent right wing restaurants known to abuse workers. A lot of these restaurant chains originate in the South because of lax labor laws.
OSI Restaurant Partners, LLC, headquartered in Tampa, Florida is one of the worst. It owns and operates Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba's Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill, Roy's Restaurant and Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar.
The owners are unapologetic right wingers who been sucessfully sued for EEOC complaints and other violations of labor law. OSI successfully lobbied against the raising or the minimum wage for restarant workers.
sources: http://www.hillbillyreport.org/diary/1181/servicetype-jobs-drive-working-poverty-in-america and http://www.knowmore.org/wiki/index.php?title=OSI_Restaurant_Partners
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Mon Feb 15, 2010 at 12:37:12 PM EST
With the apparent death of manufacturing in America the service industry has taken over as a major employer in our country. With over 13 million workers, the restaurant industry seems to be particularly booming. However, unfortunately for the young folks growing up in this "Lost Generation" for jobs, these jobs are thankless and provide little in the way of wages, benefits and job security.
A new report by Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC), an advocate group for restaurant workers, reveals that up to 90 percent of restaurant staff is not offered health insurance or sick days and, as a result, many report to work sick.
A substantial number are forced to work "off the clock" and the national median hourly wage for food preparation and service workers is only $8.59, including tips, which means that half of all restaurant workers nationwide actually earn less.
These are poverty level wages with no benefits. Despite all the corporate welfare flying around our country these businesses treat their employees as virtual slaves. They also create a huge strain on the American economy:
The report also finds that low wages and lack of job security among restaurant workers leads to increased reliance on social assistance programs resulting in an indirect subsidy to employers engaging in low road practices and fewer such public resources available to all those in need.
When the minimum wage was passed last time, an attempt was made to raise minimum wage for wait staff and increase their tip credit but of course that attempt was thwarted by big business and their apologists in the Congress:
One recommendation to improve restaurant jobs is to raise the federal minimum wage for wait staff, which has been at $2.13 since 1991. In theory, the workers earn enough tips to bring them up to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
Worker advocates tried to boost what is known as the tip credit, when legislation to raise the minimum wage was passed in 2007. But the restaurant industry and Republican lawmakers were able to block the effort.
If the only jobs that are going to be created in America are going to be service-type restaurant jobs, then these jobs simply have to be more lucrative for those who work them.
These poverty-level wages with no benefits are not going to support a whole new generation of workers without them living in poverty. Long have the big names in the food service industry made booming profits and shared little with the workers who made them possible.
Even many educated young folks are forced to work these jobs, especially in the state of this economy. This is why we need the Employee Free Choice Act to give these folks a fair shake. Any talk of a union in these places and one is immediatlely fired, but nowhere in America is unionisation needed more than the service industry.
It is time that all workers were treated with respect and we rewarded work, not merely wealth in this country. With more folks working under the poverty line than ever, we simply must increase wages in this country.
One reason they have stagnated is the increasing greed of the service sector businesses. It is time we gave Americans working in these tiring, thankless jobs the rights they deserve and made it easier for them to organize themselves for a brighter future for their families.
As progressive Democrats, the Rightardia staff does not frequent right wing restaurants known to abuse workers. A lot of these restaurant chains originate in the South because of lax labor laws.
OSI Restaurant Partners, LLC, headquartered in Tampa, Florida is one of the worst. It owns and operates Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba's Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill, Roy's Restaurant and Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar.
The owners are unapologetic right wingers who been sucessfully sued for EEOC complaints and other violations of labor law. OSI successfully lobbied against the raising or the minimum wage for restarant workers.
sources: http://www.hillbillyreport.org/diary/1181/servicetype-jobs-drive-working-poverty-in-america and http://www.knowmore.org/wiki/index.php?title=OSI_Restaurant_Partners
Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IGiu
Netcraft rank: 5222 http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com
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