Sonali Kolhatkar speaks with Saru Jayaraman about how tip-based wages are racist and sexist.

March 24 2021 was Equal Pay Day. The National Committee on Pay Equity defines it as the date that, “symbolizes how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year.”

The group One Fair Wage released a report on the wages of tipped workers to mark the day called Tipping Point: How the Subminimum Wage Keeps Incomes Low and Harassment High.

Focused on women workers in the restaurant industry the report covers, “the prevalence of sexual harassment among tipped workers, its connection to tipped workers’ subminimum wage, and the consequences faced by survivors, including retaliation by employers for reporting.”

Conditions for tipped workers were even worse during the pandemic the report found.

Saru Jayaraman, President of One Fair Wage and Assistant Adjunct Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Food Labor Research Center at University of California, Berkeley.

Rising Up with Sonali is a radio and television show that brings progressive news coverage rooted in gender and racial justice to a wide audience. Rising Up With Sonali was built on the foundation of Sonali Kolhatkar's earlier show, Uprising, which became the longest-running drive-time radio show on KPFK in Los Angeles hosted by a woman.

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Equal Pay Day Free Speech TV National Committee on Pay Equity One Fair Wage Racism Rising Up with Sonali Saru Jayaraman Sexism Sonali Kolhatkar United States Wages