Jane Fonda Joins The Fight For Fair Wages in the Restaurant Industry

I photographed a private dinner for Jane Fonda to support One Fair Wage. I discovered she lives right by me. Who knew?

More info about One Fair Wage at the bottom of this blog post!

Jane, Chelsea, & Rosanna.

ROC President Saru Jayaraman & Amy Poehler. Amy brought Saru as her date to the Golden Globes this year to raise awareness about One Fair Wage.

Lily Tomlin, Connie Britton, Chelsea Handler, Saru Jayaraman, and Jane Fonda.

Filming for the campaign.

Some info about One Fair Wage:

Due to the lobbying power of the National Restaurant Association and Fortune 500 restaurant corporations, the restaurant industry is one of the only industries that gets away, in 43 states, not paying the great majority of people who work in restaurants — servers, bussers, hosts, bartenders — at least the minimum wage.

  • Since the restaurant industry does not pay its servers the minimum wage, servers are forced to rely on tips as their wage. Their employer gives them as little as $2.13 an hour (the federal tipped minimum wage since 1991), and then takes out taxes. This leaves them with $0 paychecks, obviously insufficient to pay rent or put food on the table for their families.
  • Although employers are legally required to “top off” the pay of a person who works for tips if don’t add up to at least the minimum wage, enforcement is so lax and disorganized that wage theft has reached epidemic levels.
  • The restaurant industry includes 7 of the 10 lowest paying jobs in the country. In fact, people who work in the industry are twice as likely to need food stamps than the rest of the US workforce, and three times as likely to live in poverty.
  • Seventy percent of people who work in the restaurant industry are women. Since a living base wage is not guaranteed, and women are instead forced to depend on tips, they frequently have to put up with sexual harassment from customers, co-workers, and management. The EEOC has targeted the restaurant industry as the single largest source of sexual harassment charges filed by women with a rate FIVE TIMES higher than any other industry.

There will be future events all over the US to support One Fair Wage, so keep your eyes out and donate if you support the cause!

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