Working in the food system is difficult. It’s really hard work—and workers along the food chain often don’t get paid what they deserve.
On farms, at processing facilities, or restaurant kitchens, clocking in means entering an environment that’s taxing on both your physical well-being and your mental health. And in the United States, the federal minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour—the same it’s been for 15 years. For employees who earn tips, the subminimum wage is $2.13 per hour, if tips push the total hourly earnings past the $7.25 mark.
This should go without saying: The people who put food on our plates and in our bowls shouldn’t struggle to afford to put food on their own tables, too.
This is on my mind this week as we approach Labor Day in the United States, which is next Monday, Sept. 2.
Many states and cities in the U.S., including agricultural hubs like California, Oregon, New York, and Florida, have set their own minimum wages higher than the federal standard—although that’s clearly a low bar, and wages in many places remain too low. Several states have also eliminated the subminimum tipped wage, so employers are no longer able to rely on customers to pay their workers for them.
“There’s really only one future for this industry, and it has to be providing life-sustaining wages,” says Saru Jayaraman, the President of One Fair Wage.
We’re seeing even more wins around the country. Last month, the Michigan State Supreme Court upheld a law that will raise the state’s minimum wage and phase out the tipped wage. Chicago’s city council also passed an ordinance last year to bring tipped workers’ wages up to parity with the city’s standard minimum wage of $15.80. Effective earlier this spring, California lawmakers bumped the minimum wage for many fast food workers up to $20, and the state also created a Fast Food Council for workers and union members to have a say in workplace safety and wages.
Pay inequality remains a serious concern, though, especially among employees who work long hours but lack a formal full-time employment structure, such as migrant farm laborers, undocumented workers, and gig workers—folks like Uber drivers and app-based food delivery drivers. We should all look to New York City, which passed a first-of-its kind ordinance last year that mandates that app companies pay their delivery workers at least $19.56 per hour.
These accomplishments are significant steps in the right direction—and they have largely come about thanks to advocacy efforts by organized labor.
Organizations like United Farm Workers; the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC); Food Chain Workers Alliance; Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU); Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, and so many more organizations have been instrumental in boosting the rights of workers all across the food chain, from farms to factories to supermarkets to street vendors.
“I have never been more hopeful than I am today that I will have a higher paycheck, better protection when I get sick, and a much brighter tomorrow,” says Roquesha Oneal, a restaurant worker in Detroit, Michigan, after the state raised the minimum wage earlier this year.
But we can’t stop fighting for the rights of food and farm workers. We need to build systems that turn these local victories into meaningful, sustainable changes in the way that our food chains operate.
The Good Food New York Bill, passed this summer, is a great example. In many places, public institutions like schools, hospitals, and prisons must award food contracts to the lowest bidder. But this law allows those institutions to use their power of procurement to buy from sources that support workers, farmers, animals, and the environment.
And workers must be able to raise their voices for change! Too often, when food sector workers try to organize—even at companies like Starbucks and Trader Joe’s that claim progressiveness but actually see illegal union-busting tactics as simply a cost of doing business—workers routinely face intimidation, harassment, and a refusal from corporate leaders to bargain in good faith. We need legislation like the PRO Act, which would protect workers’ legal right to organize for better wages and working conditions.
We need to make sure food companies know they will only succeed when they treat their workers well and pay them fairly!