Detroit – One Fair Wage Hits the Streets to Celebrate International Women’s Day 2022

DETROIT, MI

MEDIA ADVISORY FOR: Tuesday, March 8, 12:00 PM

CONTACT: Madison Donzis | madison@unbendablemedia.com

TUES. 12PM: Advocates Rally at Hart Plaza in Detroit on International Women’s Day to End the Subminimum Wage for Tipped Workers as Best Way to Address Great Resignation and Get Women Back to Work 

One Fair Wage Says the Subminimum Wage Disproportionately Harms Women, Creates  Economic Instability, Prevents the Wage Gap From Closing, and Is Key Challenge Driving Women to Leave the Restaurant Industry 

DETROIT, MI – This International Women’s Day, starting at noon, activists rallying to end the subminimum wage will gather outside Hart Plaza in Detroit calling to end the subminimum wage, which they say disproportionately harms women, drives economic instability, prevents the wage gap from closing, and is the key issue workers are reporting as the reason they are leaving the industry.

The rally comes amidst a new ballot measure in Michigan slated to be on the November 2022 ballot that would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and end subminimum wages for tipped workers, workers with disabilities, and youth.

The rally follows months of reports of increased harassment, hostility and racial discrimination in restaurants, highlighting both the impossible situation faced by workers forced to enforce public health mandates on the same customers from whom they must obtain tips, and the racial inequities faced by workers and customers of color. Ending the subminimum wage would enable women to achieve greater gender equity and significantly reduce sexual harasment and gender-based violence at work.

WHERE: Hart Plaza, 1 Hart Plz, Detroit, MI 48226

WHEN: 12:00 – 2:00 PM

SPEAKERS: Sara Habbo from The Working Families Party, Detroit City Council Woman District 2 Angela Whitfield-Collaway, and Imani Battle from Nourish Ramen.

Restaurant Workers;

‘High Road’ Restaurant Employers, who are members of RAISE: HRR, an association of over 2,000 small and independent restaurants committed to raising wages and working conditions in the restaurant industry.

OTHER DETAILS: Free meals from La Taco Bae will be provided. Music from DJ Lixxer and rap performance from A-Day.

According to a new report from One Fair Wage, titled The Great Black Restaurant Worker Exodus, the subminimum wage for tipped workers has disproportionately affected Black workers–particularly Black women–and its impacts heightened during the pandemic: the race and gender wage gap between Black women tipped workers and white men tipped workers increased by more than a third (36 percent) over the last four years, from $4.19 an hour in 2017 to $5.68 per hour in 2021 (in 2020 dollars). Black women tipped workers always earned less than their white male counterparts due to both customer bias in tipping and their segregation into lower-tipping positions and more casual restaurants, where tips are less than in fine dining establishments. This gap has worsened as the subminimum wage for tipped workers has stagnated at $2.13 an hour at the federal level – subjecting all workers to greater dependence on these racial inequities of tipping.