New Survey on Sex Harassment in Fast Food and Restaurant Industry Adds to Workers' Issues

When Ohio-born Clarissa S. finally graduated culinary school and started work as a pastry chef at a New York City restaurant she knew the drill: having worked at several venues (a catering hall, hotel, bake shop, etc.) as baker for five years, she had a good sense of the dynamic of a professional kitchen.

The outgoing newlywed has the focus and skill needed for her work, while being able to handle the fast pace that’s typical of a restaurant kitchen (or back of house).  She was familiar with the job pressures, as well as the behavior of her typically male coworkers. “Of course there were sexual comments and innuendos. In most of the kitchens I’ve worked that’s just a part of the atmosphere,” she begins. “It wasn’t always direct though. For example the rubber things you put on your finger when you get cut are called ‘finger condoms.’ Most of the innuendo and sex comments were couched as playful banter and it was often how the cooks communicated with each other.” While she also experienced an episode that wasn’t so playful (she was a young baker and a sous chef approached her when they were in the shop late at night), she quickly learned how to defuse a situation. “You have to be direct. If a staffer made a comment that left me feeling uncomfortable, I’d joke back. He typically would leave me alone after that. Look, I know it can be a lot worse in other kitchens, but it’s just part of the game,” she says.

A game that is familiar to anyone who has worked in the industry, as a recent report  (that included a survey of 688 workers in 39 states) on prevalence of sexual harassment in food service concludes both women and men confront harassment from managers, co-workers and patrons. Some findings include:

• Two-thirds of women and over half of male workers surveyed experienced some form of sexual harassment from management;
• Both women (80%) and men (70%) experienced some form of sexual harassment from co-workers while the same amount of women and 55% of men experienced harassment from customers;
• Harassment is routine as 66% of women said they experienced sexual harassment from management at least on a monthly basis and 52% on at least a weekly basis.

What makes this survey by the nonprofit Restaurant Opportunities Centers United  (ROC UNITED) so groundbreaking is that the authors were able to gather any data at all as the 11-million-strong industry is notoriously difficult to track or measure given that so many businesses are private and employ a largely undocumented workforce (adding a layer of complexity given that owners may be lax in reporting or following any fair-pay regulations). Also, a big part of the harassment picture, according to ROC UNITED, centers on wages.

While all restaurant workers are vulnerable to harassment, women (who make up 7% of the industry), especially those who rely on tips as wages or receive tipped sub-minimum wages, are most at risk. Currently, restaurant workers in 22 states get the federal sub-minimum tipped wage of $2.13/hour; workers in 20 states make anywhere between $2.13-$5/hour.

Female tipped restaurant workers in states where the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers is $2.13 per hour are twice as likely to experience sexual harassment, says Maria Myotte, National Communications Coordinator for ROC UNITED. “The sub-minimum wage makes customers shadow employers because the sub-minimum wage is so low that tips end up being the entirety of a tipped workers’ take-home pay. It would be absurd to expect that of any other industry. Everyone, including an increasing number of restaurateurs, want the entire industry to be held accountable to directly paying all their employees at least one, fair minimum wage.”

Restaurant workers’ wages have been making headlines–a result of an overall increase in awareness in fair labor issues, especially  in the fast food industry (chains like McDonald’s and Burger King have been targets). Strikes organized by Fight for $15 (part of Fast Food Forward), which launched in 2012 and is dedicated to changing the national minimum wage to $15, have been popping up with its most recent strike spread over 190 cities (hourly workers from other industries like home health care and convenience stores have joined the cause, too). According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2012 food service and beverage workers made an average of $8.84/hour and had a yearly income of $18,400/year.

While researchers have studied the true costs of minimum wage to taxpayers (fast food workers are paid so little that they require other forms of government assistance from Medicaid to SNAP), the ROC UNITED report outlines the cost of sexual harassment to the industry. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), according to the survey’s authors, has identified the industry as the “single largest source” of claims by workers and in the last decade, awarded over $10 million dollars in settlements to employees who brought suit against their employers (national fast casual and fast food chains, including Cracker Barrel, Cheesecake Factory, Dunkin Donuts, Applebee’s, Popeye’s, McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Outback, Sonic and Panda Express EXPR +1.45%, as well as independently owned restaurants, were on the list).

As for Clarissa, she’s currently pregnant and working a few days at a bakery. “Once I have my kid, I’ll work with food in a different context that allows for easier hours and holidays off. But in five or six years, I’d like to get back into it. It’s what I do.”