We Need Relief AND Raises
The restaurant industry has been one of the largest and fastest-growing sectors of the United States economy for decades. Restaurant corporations valued in the tens of billions, with CEOs earning multimillion-dollar salaries, lead the National Restaurant Association, which has lobbied throughout the pandemic for a series of grants and subsidies for restaurant owners while simultaneously lobbying against any wage increases for their workers and maintaining the lowest-paid workforce in the United States. As the restaurant industry - both owners and workers - continue to struggle throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress is now considering allocating tens of billions more dollars in taxpayer funds to restaurant owners with no requirements about worker pay or treatment, while they have simultaneously maintained the federal minimum wage for tipped restaurant workers at just $2.13 an hour.