New ‘Wages Can’t Wait’: Service Workers’ Action & Relief Fund

THURS. 11am: At Nationally-Live Streamed New Hampshire Women & The Economy Forum, One Fair Wage Announces New ‘Raise the Wage Voter Bloc’ and $1,000,000 “Wages Can’t Wait: Service Workers Action and Relief Fund”

Manchester, NH -- This Thursday, July 8, at 11:00 at the St. Anselm’s Institute of Politics in Manchester, NH, MSNBC and CNN Contributors Jamal Simmons and Sally Kohn will moderate a forum with New Hampshire voters focused on ‘New Hampshire Women and the Economy,’ sponsored by over 20 local and national women’s organizations and economic justice organizations, including One Fair Wage, MomsRising, RAISE High Road Restaurants representing 1000 independent restaurateurs in NH and nationwide, NH Black & Women’s Caucuses, NH Latino Caucus, NH AFL-CIO, Ultraviolet, Patriotic Millionaires, and many more.

National and local groups joined to sponsor the forum given the important role New Hampshire’s 2022 Senate race will play in determining the future of the US Senate and the outsized role working women will play in the 2022 NH Senate race.

The Forum will discuss the conditions facing working women voters in New Hampshire - especially why so many women workers are leaving the service sector, and the inability of restaurants to fully reopen as a result. The Forum will also delve into what issues will determine the New Hampshire working women’s vote in November 2022, and allow political donors to understand both New Hampshire women voters’ concerns and electeds’ responses. The forum will be livestreamed for high net worth political donors across the country.

WHAT: NH Economy Voters’ & Donors Forum

WHEN: Thursday, July 8, 2021 -- 11:00 ET

WHERE: St. Anselm’s Institute of Politics, Manchester, NH

SPEAKERS INCLUDE: Jamal Simmons & Sally Kohn, MSNBC & CNN contributors; NH State Representatives Cheryl Frost and Maria Perez, among others; City Councilmember Crystal Paridis; Saru Jayaraman, President, One Fair Wage; Kimberly Stroud, NH Moral Economy Coalition, NH restaurant owners and workers

TO RSVP, PLEASE EMAIL: Brett Abrams at brett@unbendablemedia.com

At the event, One Fair Wage will announce two new initiatives; 1) the Raise the Wage Voter Bloc, with voters declaring that they will enthusiastically turn out in 2022 for electeds who deliver on raising the minimum wage, and 2) a new $1,000,000 “Wages Can’t Wait - Service Worker Action and Relief Fund” aimed to support struggling restaurant workers who are considering leaving the industry given current low tips and wages and increased customer hostility, to help them stay in the industry and elevate their voices for increased wages that would make the sector more sustainable.

The Wages Can’t Wait - Service Worker Action and Relief Fund will provide relief funds and leadership training to support workers who are fed up, to help them stay in the service sector and keep fighting — to stay and push for reforms in the industry that feeds so many of us. For those who do walk off their jobs in protest, the fund will ensure they can feed their families at night, and provide training and support so that in the morning they can continue their advocacy.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE WAGES CAN'T WAIT SERVICE WORKER ACTION AND RELIEF FUND HERE: https://ofwemergencyfund.org/wcwfund

“The restaurant industry in New Hampshire and nationwide doesn’t have a worker shortage - it has a wage shortage. Tens of thousands of restaurant workers do not want to go back to work to earn poverty wages putting their lives on the line,” said Saru Jayaraman, President of One Fair Wage. “The Wages Can't Wait - Service Worker Action and Relief Fund will help support restaurant workers as they return to their jobs, organize their colleagues and push for the Raise the Wage Act, which would raise the minimum wage to $15 and end the subminimum wage for tipped workers. Ultimately, it’s important for the New Hampshire Senators and all their colleagues in the Senate to understand that raising the wage is the only way to put our nation back on the road to economic recovery and to ensure that restaurants and their workers can thrive as we rebuild our economy. It’s also the only way these working women will enthusiastically turn out to vote in 2022 .”

Earlier this year, One Fair Wage released first representative survey of tipped restaurant workers, just put out by Lake Research Partners, in partnership the National Employment Law Project (NELP), and UltraViolet, shows that four in five tipped restaurant workers in New Hampshire, Maine, and Delaware support One Fair Wage - increasing the federal minimum wage for tipped workers to $15 an hour with tips on top. Eighty percent of workers support the Raise the Wage Act with high intensity – with half (50%) strongly in favor.

The polling data comes after New Hampshire Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Maggie Hassan (D-NH) voted against the Raise the Wage Act, a major setback to one of President Biden’s priority policy goals. The poll was conducted to respond to some of these senators’ concerns about the bill’s proposal to end the subminimum wage for tipped workers, which is a direct legacy of slavery and currently impacts a workforce of tipped workers that is over two thirds women and disproportionately women of color.

Ensuring that tipped workers have One Fair Wage for their work has never been more important and urgent than during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, recently, corporate chain restaurants admitted to their investors that ending the subminimum wage and raising the minimum wage is good for business — especially in the wake of reports that the industry is suffering a labor crisis because of low wages, with workers reporting they will not go back to high-risk restaurant jobs without a living wage plus tips on top.

SEE THE SURVEY HERE: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cYi0iCssBioIBiG-4AF1J6FB-k9fe04y/view?usp=sharing

And according One Fair Wage’s report, “It’s A Wage Shortage, Not A Worker Shortage: Why Restaurant Workers, Particularly Mothers, Are Leaving the Industry and What Would Make Them Stay,” 53% of all workers say they are considering leaving their restaurant jobs, with the overwhelming majority of them citing low wages and tips as a core reason for finding new employment. The report found that:

• ‘Low wages and tips’ was by far the most popular reason for leaving the industry (73%) , more than 20 percentage points higher than the second most popular reason — COVID health risks. Mothers were ten percentage points more likely to say they are leaving restaurants due to low wages and tips compared to non-mothers (80% v 71%).
• The vast majority of all respondents (78%) report having a full, stable, livable wage would make them consider staying at their job. Again, ‘full, stable, livable wages’ was by far the most popular factor that workers reported would make them stay at their job, nearly 30 percentage points higher than the second most popular factor — paid sick leave.

READ THE FULL REPORT HERE: https://onefairwage.site/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/OFW_WageShortage_F.pdf