Restaurant Opportunities Center of Los Angeles: Report Release and Summit

Valentine's Day 2011 was an extremely exciting day for ROC-LA and all ROC affiliates. We released our first report, a comprehensive industry study of Los Angeles' restaurant industry, along with two ROC affiliates in Washington, D.C. and Miami, who also had reports for their cities. In other ROC affiliates including Chicago, NY, Detroit, and New Orleans, legislative visits to Congressional members were made to advocate for H.R. 634, WAGES Act, to increase the tipped minimum wage. Our national day of action all took place on the same day to bring attention to the extremely low federal tipped minimum wage of $2.13. Although Valentine’s Day is the highest grossing day of the year for restaurants, many Los Angeles restaurant workers earn less than a median wage of $9.24. Can you live off $9.24 an hour or $15,000 a year while supporting a family? Despite the economic recession, the restaurant industry is growing. The National Restaurant Association recently reported earning $604 billion GDP! The living wage is possible and the industry is able to take the high road to profitability.

ROC-LA's report release at our Restaurant Industry Summit had a great turnout! 150 people showed up at Taix French Restaurant and the crowd was excited to hear about working conditions in LA's restaurants.

Our keynote speaker was Thomas A. Saenz, President and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund. Our panelists included Abel Valenzuela, Jr., Director of the UCLA Center for the Study of Urban Poverty, Robert Gottlieb, Director of the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute of Occidental College, and co-author of Food Justice; and Jamie Dolkas, staff attorney at Equal Rights Advocates. We also had Jason Michaud, owner and chef of Local Restaurant in Silver Lake; Luis Hernandez, back of the house restaurant worker, and Nora Garcia, front of the house restaurant worker.

Behind the Kitchen Door: Inequality & Opportunity in Los Angeles, the Nation's Largest Restaurant Industry is the most comprehensive report ever conducted on the state of the restaurant industry in the County of Los Angeles. The report is based on over 562 surveys of restaurant workers and over 60 in-depth interviews with employers and workers, as well as government data analysis conducted with primary research support from UCLA’s Center for the Study of Urban Poverty.

Here's a link to download our full report or grab our shorter executive summary.

Some of our recommendations from the report are:

- Provide paid sick days and increase the minimum wage
- Incentivize high road practices and promote model employer practices
- Promote opportunity, penalize discrimination
- Combat sexual harassment
- Enforce health and safety laws
- Protect worker's right to organize
- Expand and improve bus services
- Expand LA's living wage ordinance to include restaurants that contract with the City of Los Angeles
- Support further industry research

On the same day, CA Assemblymember Fiona Ma reintroduced the Paid Sick Days Bill (AB 400) so workers in CA could earn and use paid sick days for personal illness, to care for a sick family member, or to recover from domestic violence or sexual assault. ROC-LA is part of a coalition to get this bill passed in the legislature and we're really working hard on this issue publicized and passed.

We had a lot of help putting the report and the summit together. ROC-LA wants to thank you all!