FRI 10AM: Rep. Ayanna Pressley, MA Elected Officials

MASSACHUSETTS — On Friday, March 26th, at 10:00am ET, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, City Councillor Lydia Edwards, and State Representative Brandy Fluker-Oakley will join One Fair Wage, the Matahari Women Workers Center, and Mass Jobs With Justice for a virtual event to honor Womens' History Month and especially highlighting the labor of women, women of color and essential workers and calling for One Fair Wage — a full minimum wage plus tips.

WHAT: Massachusetts Women Workers Rising: Building a Path Forward Together

SPEAKERS:

• Angella Foster Matahari Organizer & Domestic Worker
• Alex Gladwell Matahari Leader & Co-founder Restaurant Worker Mutual Aid
• City Councillor Lydia Edwards
• State Representative Brandy Fluker-Oakley
• Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley

WHEN: Friday, March 26th, 2021. 10:00 - 11:00 AM EST

WHERE: bit.ly/workersrise

On the call, the leaders will discuss a new report from One Fair Wage on the impact of the subminimum wage for tipped workers on gender pay gaps in Massachusetts. According to a new report from One Fair Wage, there are over 130,000 tipped workers in Massachusetts. Over two-thirds of Massachusetts tipped workers are women, 33 percent of whom are mothers.Because tipped restaurant workers are 67% women and non-tipped restaurant workers are 40% women, the subminimum wage for tipped workers amounts to legislated gender pay inequity in the restaurant industry, perpetuating the gender pay gap and leading to higher rates of poverty.

• In Massachusetts, the average female restaurant server earns 87 percent of what their male counterpart earns, costing women $136,000 over a life-time. The pay gap results from the dependence on tips, since research shows women are segregated into more casual restaurants, where tips are less, and customers tip women less.
• In Massachusetts, female restaurant workers are 1.4 times more likely to live in poverty as male restaurant workers. In general, tipped workers are 2.4 times more likely to live in poverty than the overall workforce. Among tipped workers, female tipped workers have a 31% higher poverty rate than male tipped workers. Female tipped workers are also 1.4 times more likely to rely on food stamps and 1.8 times more likely to rely on Medicaid compared to male tipped workers.
• Women are concentrated in the restaurant industry’s lowest paying occupations, even including tips. Five of Massachusetts’ ten lowest paying jobs are tipped occupations and women are the majority in half of them.6 Because tipped workers are predominantly female, this poverty burden falls dispro-portionately on women.

READ THE FULL REPORT HERE: https://onefairwage.site/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/OFW_TimeToEndSubWage_MA_1.pdf

In conjunction with Womens’ History Month and the one year anniversary of the pandemic, speakers will highlighting the stories of restaurant workers, domestic workers, and retail workers and calling participants to action in local organizing efforts that create more jobs with fair wages and labor practices on the state and federal level, including eliminating the subminimum wage, creating fair scheduling practices, and the federal fight for $15.