Staffing

Survey finds restaurants now paying average wage of $13.50 plus tips

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September 27, 2021

According to a new survey conducted by One Fair Wage, a national nonprofit organization that advocates on behalf of service workers, more than 1,600 restaurants are now paying an average wage of $13.50 plus tips across 41 states where earlier this year the vast majority of restaurants paid only a tipped minimum wage of $5 or less, according to a press release.

In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis and resulting staffing shortages, restaurants are finding that they must transition to one fair wage in order to recruit talent, fully reopen, and survive.

"I've raised wages to help retain our amazing staff, and to attract new employees. The problem: there are virtually no new candidates out there. We and others want to reopen seven days a week but can't until we find staff. I urge our esteemed New Hampshire senators to acknowledge the hospitality staffing crisis by raising the wage," Evan Mallet, owner of the Black Trumpet, said in the release.

"Given this shift in the restaurant industry toward full, livable wages with tips on top, it is imperative that policy makers support both workers and employers in the restaurant industry by passing federal and state policy to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and end the subminimum wage for tipped workers. The restaurant industry is increasingly recognizing that there is no other way to entice millions of workers who have left or are leaving the industry to return or stay, and thus no other way to fully reopen or recover from the COVID-19 pandemic," Saru Jayaraman, executive director of One Fair Wage, said in the release. "After 150 years of tolerating poverty wages since emancipation, workers are refusing to work for anything less than a full, livable wage with tips on top, and responsive employers need policymakers to support their responsiveness by creating a level playing field and signaling to millions of workers that it is worth returning to work in restaurants."