#119: Saru Jarayaman — Author of “One Fair Wage: Ending Subminimum Pay In America,” Attorney, Activist, President of One Fair Wage, Director of The Food Labor Research Center at UC, Berkeley

Subminimum wage workers make about 10% of the American workforce. That means, of all working Americans, 13 million people make about $2.13.

These workers are in an incredibly vulnerable position, as they’re often reliant on tips, receive little to no benefits, and lack consistent hours, to make ends meet. It’s a massive problem that's become endemic to our workforce, especially in areas like the hospitality and restaurant industry.

This is what today's guest, Saru Jarayaman, is fighting against as she strives to ensure every worker across America gets a fair chance at a liveable wage. A graduate from Yale Law, Saru is the co-founder of the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC), which she founded with displaced World Trade Center workers after 9/11. Eventually, it grew into a national movement of restaurant workers, employers and consumers. This led her to also found, and become president of One Fair Wage, a national organization of nearly 300,000 service workers, over 2,000 restaurant employers, and dozens of organizations nationwide all working together to end all subminimum wages in the United States and improve wages and working conditions in the service industry.

For her work she was recognized in CNN’s “Top10 Visionary Women” and as a Champion of Change by the White House in 2014. In 2015, she received the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award, and many, many other awards.

Her latest book “One Fair Wage: Ending Subminimum Pay in America” uplifts the stories of subminimum wage workers across many sectors — including tipped restaurants, workers with disabilities, incarcerated workers, and more. The book not just highlights the massive inequalities and injustices these people face, but also offers insights, and solutions, into how fixing these systems makes everyone winners.

This is an especially important episode of the podcast, one that’s essential for those who are managing frontline workers! Lucky for you, this is a shorter episode, so with that…let’s bring it in.