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delawarerestaurant.org11
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edi torial
In response to the article, which gave a negative account of the
restaurant industry and its labor practices, Delaware Restaurant
Association President Carrie Leishman penned the following
Op-Ed. It appeared in the September 30, 2015 issue of the
News Journal.
A September 26 News Journal article presumably intended to
inform readers about a lawsuit brought to a single restaurant
by the Delaware Department of Labor, but instead succeeded
in painting a biased picture of tipped employees and the
restaurant community that provide employment and career
opportunities. The news report largely ignored opinions of
tipped earners in favor of the noise of a handful of labor
union-backed activists.
The practice of tipping is fundamentally engrained in our
American culture and this spirit of service and hospitality is what
makes the restaurant industry an industry of choice for almost
50,000 Delawareans. To state that restaurant workers earn
a “sub-minimum” wage is categorically false. Tips are wages
that both employers and employees pay taxes on. By law each
employee in Delaware must earn at least the minimum wage
of $8.25 an hour, and it is the responsibility of the employer to
make sure each employee makes at least the minimum wage
from a combination of wages and tips. No one is making $2.23
an hour in Delaware — period! In fact, servers and bartenders
earn tips (in addition to their paid wages) that often make them
some of the highest earners within a restaurant. In practice,
this system is not “dysfunctional” as the article portrays it. In
self-reported earnings alone, Census Bureau data shows servers
and bartenders collect up to $25 an hour or more. Insinuating
that the restaurant industry circumvents the law, keeps tips for
themselves, practices “wage-theft” as well as harming “women
and people of color” is simply false.
Ninety percent of restaurants are independent or franchise-
owned. Each local business operates on razor-thin profit
margins of 3 percent to 6 percent. They are critical employers in
Delaware who offer essential opportunities to all — including
women, teenagers and minorities from all backgrounds who
value the flexible hours and valuable skills leading toward
career paths without limitations. Encouraging diversity,
restaurants advance women’s careers and not just because
they are “attractive or flirtatious” as the article suggests.
According to the National Restaurant Association, 61 percent
of women have worked in the restaurant industry, 45 percent
of restaurant managers are women, and more than half of U.S.
restaurants are owned or co-owned by women. The most telling
statistic is the fact that 92 percent of women who have worked
in restaurants say the industry is a good place to get a first job
and learn valuable skills.
Instead of devaluing restaurants and attacking small
businesses, let’s focus on the facts: restaurants continue to
create jobs and provide real opportunity to young people,
women and minorities of all skill levels looking to step
into the work force as well as those who are seeking to find
their economic footing that will put them on the pathway to
middle-class careers. More than virtually any other industry in
Delaware, the restaurant industry provides career choices and
upward mobility that is simply not possible in other fields. We
are truly an industry of opportunity that values and promotes
our employees, and recognizes the crucial role they play in our
local economy.
Carrie Leishman is President and CEO of the Delaware Restaurant Association
& Delaware Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. Her organization
represents 2,000 restaurants in Delaware, which employ nearly 50,000 people
and exceed $1.7 billion in annual sales.