How One Fair Wage Will Be Won

One fair wage is a campaign to raise the tipped minimum wage up to the regular minimum wage and allow tip-sharing between the front and the back of the house of the restaurant. In the US, 43 states have what is called a sub-minimum wage — a wage lower than the regular minimum wage for tipped professions. It goes as low as $2.13 per hour (primarily in states in the south).

The One Fair Wage campaign (or OFW, for short) was launched in 2013 by the national restaurant worker right’s nonprofit, the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United). Within ROC United, it was really the co-founder and organizational leader, Saru Jayaraman, who brainstormed it’s conception into reality and pushing it to the forefront within the organization.

For the first couple of years of the campaign’s existence, the primary focus was getting OFW bills introduced in state legislatures in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York. Perhaps 5–10 staff within ROC United worked on the campaign, while the rest of the staff focused on other program work, such as the Dignity at Darden campaign. Then came Danny Meyer.

In late 2015, the famous restaurateur, Danny Meyer, announced that he was eliminating tipping from his restaurants. This announcement sent a cultural shockwave through the restaurant industry — an industry shift not seen since the early 1990’s with the banning of smoking at restaurants. Soon after Meyer’s announcement, several other high-profile restaurateurs announced they too will be eliminating tipping from their restaurants. Perhaps the most notable announcement came from the parent company of Joe’s Crab Shack which also announced their intentions of switching to a flat wage for the front of house. All of these announcements came within weeks of each other, catapulting the restaurant industry into a volatile space regarding the future of the American tipping culture.

When the string of announcements were made by the notable restaurateurs, Jayaraman made the executive decision to drop the other program work at ROC United and point everyone towards the new north star — one fair wage. From that point on, all work must build towards the one fair wage campaign. Other work was permissible, but it had to support the organization’s new north star. Jayaraman’s theory was that we rarely see this level of industry shift. This was a moment for us to seize and push in our (one fair wage) direction. We may not see another moment like this for decades.

Many staff were upset, confused, or hesitant because of the abrupt change of roles & work. There were arguments internally on whether this was the right call, but ultimately the organization moved forward with the plan. Given the limited progress on OFW (more on that later), it is difficult to say if this organizational shift was the right call.

After the initial organizational turbulence & restructuring at ROC United, the campaign building began. In upwards of six states ROC United was successful in introducing one fair wage legislation. Unfortunately none of those states during the first year were able to pass the legislation as it never came up for a vote. But the campaign was building & victory was within sight.

As the campaign progressed, efforts in new states began, most notably in Maine. In 2016, ROC United partnered with local Maine organizations to put OFW on the ballot during the general election. The ballot question gave voters the choice to incrementally raise the tipped minimum wage in Maine from around $3 per hour to $12 per hour over several years (something like seven to ten years). It would also raise the minimum wage from $7.50 per hour to $12 per hour by 2024. The ballot initiative passed overwhelmingly, receiving more votes than any other ballot initiative in Maine history.

Not long after it’s passage, restaurant industry owners and staff began panicking over the effect of the recently-passed legislation. Critics claimed that it would kill jobs, close restaurants, and cause untold harm to to Maine’s economy. The first raise went into effect in the beginning of the year in 2017.

By mid-winter, the Maine restaurant industry morphed into an echo-chamber of doomsday predictions, despite the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing the restaurant industry was actually growing with the wage increases. As we tragically know, facts are a foreign tongue to those unwilling to listen.

The momentum continued to build for those who were against a wage increase for restaurant workers. The state legislature introduced legislation less than four months after the November election to repeal the OFW portion of the minimum wage ballot initiative. Weeks later, the legislature held a hearing, where close to two hundred restaurant owners & misguided restaurant workers railed against the new law, calling for it’s complete repeal. In support, there were perhaps two dozen people. Soon after, the OFW portion of the law was completely rescinded.

This initial blow should have been the first tell-tale sign that ROC United needed to take a step back and consider a different strategy. Instead, led by Jayaraman, the organization sprinted full speed ahead with the other OFW campaigns.

Over the next few years, ROC United pushed similar campaigns in Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, and DC. They also pursued campaigns in other states like Illinois, Vermont, and Pennsylvania, but made did not make any notable progress.

Around this time was when the #MeToo movement was in full swing. ROC United’s Jayaraman took full advantage of the opportunity and was able to attend the Golden Globes, pairing up with Amy Poehler, as a way to raise awareness about sexual harassment in the restaurant industry. ROC United’s OFW campaign received substantial financial & advocacy support from a long list of well-intentioned mostly-female celebrities. People like Sarah Jessica Parker, the aforementioned Amy Poehler, and most notably Jane Fonda jumped into the campaign, bringing the #MeToo media with them.

To many at ROC United, this was the turning point for Jayaraman’s concerning stardom & when the campaign careened in the wrong direction. What developed (and is still omnipresent to this day) is a Jayaraman-led campaign propped up mostly by celebrity money & support. Jane Fonda sits on the board of the new nonprofit, One Fair Wage. Most One Fair Wage events today include as many celebrities as people who actually work in the restaurant industry. More will be shared about this later. For now, we return to the start of 2018 when the one fair wage campaign was just catching fire.

In New York, buoyed by the #MeToo movement, Governor Cuomo announced at the beginning of 2018 that the state would hold seven years on whether to implement a one fair wage policy. This was seen as a huge victory for ROC United. Governor Cuomo did the same thing only a few years earlier when it came to raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour.

The goal for ROC United was simple — turn out a bunch of supportive people to the hearings. There were seven hearings in 2018 in total. Five of the hearings were for all tip credit industries and two of them were for specific industries. The first separated hearing focused only on the restaurant industry and the other one focusing on all of the other industries, which the NY DOL referred to as ‘miscellaneous industries.’

In total, close to 1,000 people testified during the hearings and thousands of emails & letters were submitted. During each hearing, there were far more restaurant workers against the proposal than for it. There were many supporters of the proposal, but the majority of them worked in miscellaneous industries or were coalition allies of the one fair wage campaign. When it came to people who actually work in the industry, the proposal was overwhelmingly unpopular.

After the hearings ended and the NY DOL collected and analyzed all of the input, Governor Cuomo eventually advocated (and implemented) that the tipped minimum wage be eliminated in the ‘miscellaneous industries’ but not in the hospitality industry. Again, as the numbers played out, there was strong support for raising the tipped minimum wage for ‘miscellaneous workers’ but strong opposition to raising it for the hospitality workforce. To this day, the one fair wage policy in New York has not passed.

The other notable campaign was in Washington D.C. The OFW campaign in DC was around for a few years prior to 2018, but after raising enough money & figuring out it’s way through the local courts, the voters in mid-June 2018 would have the opportunity to pass OFW. More specifically, it would incrementally raise the tipped minimum wage of $3.33 per hour to $15 per hour by 2026. The ballot initiative (known as Initiative 77) passed 56% yes to 44% no. To add some context, in 2016, only 4% of the voters in DC voted for Donald Trump. To only receive 56% of the vote on a worker right’s issue in a city packed with left-leaning individuals was alarming to ROC United.

Over the next few months, opponents of the passage, primarily restaurant workers & owners lobbied heavily against the recently passed referendum. ROC United tried to recruit restaurant workers to stop the repeal, but was unable to recruit more than a dozen or so of active restaurant worker supporters. In a sign of Jayaraman’s evolving & incorrect approach, she brought in Jane Fonda to meet with council members. This was perhaps the most tragic time for ROC United, as the city council members gleefully met with Fonda but would not meet with ROC’s membership — a glaring & growing issue with the strategy of Jayaraman.

The DC city council did have one hearing on the repeal bill and the turnout in opposition far outweighed the turnout in favor. In a matter of six months, the DC city council repealed the referendum by a 8–5 vote. DC has still not passed one fair wage.

ROC United pursued one fair wage campaigns in other states, sometimes scoring meaningful wage increases for tipped workers, but was never able to pass one fair wage. In many ROC-staffed states such as Pennsylvania, the campaign is largely a staff-driven effort, acting as the spokesperson for events & rallies, but never coming close to building a movement to pass OFW.

In late 2019, there was a decision to move the one fair wage campaign out of ROC United. Jayaraman recruited some ROC United staff to join her in the creation of the new nonprofit, One Fair Wage. The new group focuses entirely on the one fair wage campaign and includes other tipped occupations such as hair saloon workers, valet workers, & car wash employees. One Fair Wage has continued to push the policy but has not made meaningful progress in any of it’s new state campaigns. On the federal level, OFW was included in the 2021 Raise the Wage Act, but as expected, did not come up for a vote in the Senate.

ROC United has returned to more traditional worker center organizing, focusing on a litany of other restaurant industry issues. Many of the chapters work on local workplace campaigns or support with other policy campaigns.

In all of these policy campaigns leading up to today, advocates for OFW have been overwhelmingly outnumbered by opponents. As someone who has been in the circle of some of the OFW campaigns, I can share the underlying issues of the OFW campaign.

1. The data is wrong. Jayaraman & other advocates always point to the statistics around the pay of front of house (FOH) staff. The worst kept secret in the restaurant industry however is that FOH staff under-report tips. Not everyone does, but enough do to greatly skewer government-reported data. The FOH at most restaurants make more than their back of house (BOH) coworkers — sometimes significantly more. Despite knowing this, advocates still push self-published reports that include faulty information because it builds their campaign case, especially to funders. There are other issues with the data, but that is for another day.
2. They have the wrong supporters. These campaigns have been largely supported by the celebrity class. Their support is appreciated, but every time Jane Fonda is speaking at a press event, that is one less opportunity for someone in the restaurant industry to be speaking. Fonda & other well-intentioned celebrities have taken up most of the space in the campaign and Jayaraman will likely never fight it as they write her paycheck.
3. They barely have any restaurant worker member supporters. There is a specific type of person who gets involved with Jayaraman’s work — those who are star-struck by her oratory skills. Jayaraman is a brilliant & moving speaker. She has built her career & organizations around her speaking prowess to the media & large crowds. Unfortunately, that is not enough to build a movement. At most of the hearings and even today on the virtual press event Zoom calls, OFW is able to gather a few restaurant worker supporters, largely due to Jayaraman’s recruiting abilities, but that is it. The rest of the staff are ineffective at recruiting restaurant workers to the campaign and that is because it is really difficult work. To win OFW in it’s current form though, they need to multiply their restaurant worker support by ten, and that is not an exaggeration. After eight years of heavy campaigning, one to five core supporters in just a few cities / states is not enough to win one fair wage.
4. Supportive employers advocate for OFW for the exact opposite reason as Jayaraman and restaurant worker members. There is a growing conversation in the restaurant industry, in particular fine-dining, about pay equity between front and back of the house. At these restaurants with more expensive menu items, the front of house can make $25-$40 per hour while the dishwasher in the back struggles to bring in more than $10 per hour. Many of these employers have joined this campaign because their hope is to bring everyone to the same wage and move a significant portion of those tips to the back of the house. It’s important to remember that many restaurant owners are chefs and have more sympathy for their BOH employees.

Supportive restaurant owners like Danny Meyer and Daniel Patterson support OFW so they can use the FOH staff tips to pay their BOH staff. To be clear, this may be the right thing to do for the staff overall, but it’s worth pointing out as this explains the lack of FOH support for OFW. Many FOH staff worry they may not actually make more money through a OFW system. The truth is that it will depend on the restaurant. Fine dining servers may end up making less money while casual-dining restaurant FOH staff will likely make a bit more money overall. It’s a risk that many FOH staff do not want to take.

Looking back over the past eight years, we have seen advocates push for OFW all over the country. In every fight, OFW lost significantly, even in liberal — bastion cities like DC, where such a thing is unheard of. Jayaraman & others will chalk up the losses as a result of intense lobbying by the National Restaurant Association & other astro-turf groups, but to those who have worked inside these campaigns, we know the tragic reality.

The unfortunate truth is that there has been a largely grassroots level opposition from with the restaurant industry, particularly FOH staff against this policy. Yes the opponents are misled, but they’re misled by their own peers. Most of the leads of the opposition groups are front of house staff whose beliefs border on conspiracy theory level. As the OFW campaign grew, this grassroots opposition grew exponentially. In every city & state where OFW policy was / is pushed, the opposition out-organizes them and creates a permanent organizing body & network of people. So the next time there is a OFW battle or a national OFW campaign, the opposition is already reaching out to their lawmakers & doing the necessary on-the-ground organizing to stomp out any hopes of elected official support.

This brings us back to the title of this piece — ‘How One Fair Wage Will Be Won.’ The way one fair wage will be won is the same way other restaurant industry culture shifts have happened — through consumer demand. It wasn’t restaurant workers in the early 90’s who were lobbying hard to ban smoking in restaurants. Sure, there were some, but as a whole it was changing consumer tastes & demands. The same is true for a healthier & more sustainable food system. It wasn’t some irate line cook chewing out the sous chef about the farm factory origins of the chicken wings they were deep frying. No, it was consumers evolving demands for what will bring them to eat at a restaurant.

Similar to smoking / non-smoking sections at a restaurant, perhaps customers need to ask for a section of the restaurant to be tip-free, where you sit in a specific area where the bill is automatically marked up 20% and you forget about calculating the tip. There are many ways for this consumer demand to grow & influence the restaurant industry. Time will tell how long tipping culture will last in America, but one thing is likely, it’s not going anywhere anytime soon with the currently fated OFW campaign.

I have three final points to make regarding OFW.

First, many people will criticize the anti-OFW groups as ‘astro-turf’ or use other puppet-master type language, but the truth is that their regrettable advocacy is similar in terms of being grassroots as ROC United and other advocacy organizations.

OFW receives much of it’s funding from the Ford Foundation and other large enterprises that pay for staff to drive these campaigns. The staff are paid to recruit restaurant workers to be ‘members’ and ‘leaders’ when really 90% of the planning & strategy is already settled. All the campaign needs is a face to legitimize their argument. Thus we will often see the same few restaurant workers dragged to the microphone to repeat talking points that a paid staffer wrote. This isn’t a condemnation of the work, but just an acknowledgement of the truth behind the scenes.

The real reason, perhaps subconsciously, why people denigrate them as ‘astro-turf’ is because it’s far more acceptable & understandable to lose to the employer, especially to funders, than it is to lose to what an organization claims is their base membership. Unions, worker centers, and worker rights’ groups lose to employers & politicians all the time and they can stomach that. But they can’t come to terms with building a campaign so poorly that their own people rebel against the cause. This is the sobering, untold reality of the OFW campaign thus far.

The second point — the people who are against OFW — in particular the FOH restaurant workers, are on the wrong side of history. They are quite effective at scaring their coworkers into being against OFW, but it’s largely based on emotion & nothing else. I’ll leave it at that, as I don’t think their opposition deserves much more scrutiny beyond the obvious error in their viewpoint.

The third & final point — the people who make up these OFW campaigns, especially the organizers, are great people. They’re trying to do the right thing and often times they come from the restaurant industry, so they have a personal sense of the headaches of working in the industry & living off tips.

While it’s true that the strategy is mostly wrong, the people behind the scenes have the right perspective & the right attitudes about how people should be treated in the restaurant industry. Even Jayaraman is trying to do the right thing, & she is remarkably talented, but it’s probably time for her to focus her energy on something else, as she is in too deep in the wrong direction with the campaign at this point.

I hope you enjoyed this perspective on how the one fair wage campaign will be won. Passing legislation & winning over the minds of million restaurant workers is a difficult job to do, so I wish the OFW advocates well in their current & future campaigning. Whatever happens to the restaurant industry in the coming years & decades, I hope people will be treated with the dignity & respect they deserve. It’s a tough world out there.