Restaurant Employees Deserve Better

In the current climate, I think we need to take better care of our workers. With stores opening their doors after these last two years in the midst of a raging pandemic, with their doors closed only a dozen months earlier, the need for new workers to hire is at an all time high. With pay raises and incentives to work hard, most stores and restaurants are finding luck in new workers who are ready to get back, or enter, into the field and serve the Commonwealth. However, there are a few outliers. Bad bosses, lack of healthcare, and misfortune come together more often than not to create the storm of turnovers and too many people leaving their jobs.

Corruption and greed turn a situation from bad to worse when unethical employers exploit low-income workers. While most employers strive to honesty and good ethics, the lust and promise of money turns already not-so-great employers to steal tips from workers, not paying overtime or minimum wage, and not paying due for the work that goes into the various industries. Culinary is one of the industries hit hardest by a bad storm of horrible employers and the general nastiness of working in the pandemic, one of the key contributors to hunger and poverty these last few years in Virginia.

An estimated 1 in 6 Americans, 48 million, lack proper healthcare benefits. With improper safe hygiene practices, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 people die from contaminated food or beverages. (Clayton) Because restaurant workers are paid as little as they are now, with usually no paid time off or health benefits, they have to force themselves to come into work when sick, putting the entire staff, the customers, and the business at risk.

Some people will ask, “If you don’t like it, then why don’t you quit?” and argue that it is a choice to work, and that if you feel you’re not treated well, you can just afford to quit and find another job. But for the majority of low-income workers, that’s just simply not an affordable option. In the current economy, and with restaurants still reeling from the effects of the global pandemic, most workers can’t afford to leave their jobs, no matter how much bad treatment they may suffer, and have to endure it to put food on their families’ tables. For migrant workers, the situation is always worse, because they are paid so little as it is already and must force themselves to work longer hours just to provide for their families.

But after this, when the pandemic is all but eradicated, we need a more permanent solution to keep workers. For the younger demographic entering the working force, we need to raise the minimum wage. At Domino’s, the managers pay us $14 an hour, which is a great starting pay to get what you want and need. However, the minimum wages need to rise across the board, for all states. While here in VA we weren’t hit the hardest by COVID, the other states worse off still struggle to make ends meet. Healthcare benefits should be offered on a regular basis, along with insurance, too. Nobody can predict when bad luck will hit. But everyone can afford to help out when the storm is over. Together, we can make the American workforce better than it is.

Works Cited

Clayton, Megan L., et al. “Listening to Food Workers: Factors That Impact Proper Health and Hygiene Practice in Food Service.” International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, vol. 21, no. 4, 5 Aug. 2015, pp. 314–327, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4727591/10.1179/2049396715y.0000000011 Accessed 21 Mar. 2022.

“Wage Theft - Virginia Interfaith Center.” Virginia Interfaith Center, 31 May 2019, www.virginiainterfaithcenter.org/economic-justice/wage-theft/. Accessed 21 Mar. 2022.