One Fair Wage Announces Campaign

See message from Saru Jayaraman, Fekkak Mamdouh, Nikki Cole, Yamila Ruiz, Jackie Cuellar of the One Fair Wage campaign below:

Dear Friends,

As 2019 draws to a close, we write to both celebrate the progress of our campaign for One Fair Wage - a full, fair minimum wage for all workers in America, with tips on top - and to announce exciting news. This month, we launched One Fair Wage as a new broader coalition entity that includes the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC) United and many other groups of workers as a result of the campaign’s growth and success. And this year alone, 16 states introduced One Fair Wage bills; One Fair Wage policy continued to advance in New York, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, and more; One Fair Wage was featured in hundreds of media outlets, including on the cover of Time Magazine; and the US House of Representatives passed One Fair Wage for the first time in US history.

On Thursday, we released new polling data, in partnership with Lake Research Associates, based on interviews with 1000 tipped workers in NY, MA, PA and MS. The findings validate that tipped workers “strongly favor” One Fair Wage even after hearing oppositional messages, directly contradicting the false claims of the astroturf ‘Save Our Tips’ PAC funded by the National Restaurant Association that tipped workers do not support One Fair Wage in fear that they would lose their tips or their jobs. The polling data is being released on the heels of President Trump’s Department of Labor moving quickly to rescind federal protections from tipped workers nationwide that will make it easier for employers to reclassify hundreds of thousands more workers as subminimum wage tipped workers. The poll shows that tipped workers know that the best solution to the revocation of their rights is to require that they be paid a full,fair minimum wage with tips on top.

We launched One Fair Wage in 2013 as part of ROC United, focused on tipped restaurant workers, but the demand to move One Fair Wage policy expanded to many more states than those in which ROC exists. We have known that One Fair Wage affects many more sectors beyond restaurant workers, including nail salon, car wash, hair salon, parking attendants, airport valets, and that app-based companies delivery and driving companies are spreading the notion of tips as wage replacement; but we also know that there are other subminimum wage workers, including disabled, incarcerated, and young workers. As a result, this month One Fair Wage has spun out of ROC as a broader, separate but aligned entity fighting for a full, fair minimum wage for every person who works in America, with tips being a supplement on top of wages rather than the wage itself. Saru Jayaraman and Fekkak Mamdouh, the two co-founders of ROC, have moved over to found and lead this new broader One Fair Wage entity, along with the fabulous team that’s signed on to this letter.

The polling we released on Thursday with Lake Research Associates demonstrates more than ever the need to grow our campaign, because tipped workers in very different states are demanding One Fair Wage! We need your support - visit onefairwage.org - to tell your legislator and your favorite restaurant owner that we need One Fair Wage now!

We’re very much looking forward to working with you in 2020 to win One Fair Wage for every person who works in America!

In Solidarity -

Saru Jayaraman, Fekkak Mamdouh, Nikki Cole, Yamila Ruiz, Jackie Cuellar