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What Does Tipping Have To Do With #Metoo?

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On our show this week, a discussion on the relationship between a restaurant's tipping policy and sexual harassment of wait staff.

We talk with restaurant owner Dave Stockwell, of Faun in Brooklyn, New York,  about tipping policy, respect in the kitchen and making a leap-- from tall buildings to a neighborhood restaurant.

When Stockwell opened Faun, he opened as a gratuity-free house. What this means is that tips are included in the price listed on the menu. He paid servers a significantly higher base wage, and also included a revenue sharing plan, where servers and kitchen staff would receive a portion of the sales on a given night.

I was interested in what drove him to that decision. Lately I've been thinking about the environment of restaurants, and what a tipping policy might have to do with how waitstaff are treated in a restaurant. It was on my mind, with all of the recent revelations of sexual harassment and assault in the restaurant industry.

I'm not the only one thinking about this. This week restaurant workers held a #NotOnTheMenu Rally in Seattle, Washington, linking the low wages in the restaurant industry with sexual harassment.

The demonstrators, organized by Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, are raising awareness about the federal sub-minimum wage for tipped workers, which remains at $2.13

While most states do pay tipped restaurant workers more, 17 states still pay the federal minimum of $2.13 per hour.

The combination of low base pay, lack of reliable schedule and dependence on tips from customers makes servers particularly vulnerable to sexual harassment and abuse, and less likely to speak up about it due to the financial instability of restaurant work.

The precarious relationship between servers and customers played into David Stockwell's initial tipping policy when he opened Faun in 2016.  We talk about this, and the pressures on a small business to conform to the standard tipping policy of the industry.

This is only one piece of a much larger conversation, one I hope to continue having here on Earth Eats, from multiple perspectives. Tune in for more voices in the coming weeks, weighing in on sexual harassment and assault in the food world, on what's changing, and what's slow to change.

In the mean time, I highly recommend this radio piece called Dispatches from the Front of House, by Sara Curtis, this NPR piece on Hospitality workers and sexual harassment, and this commentary from Francis Lam of the Splendid Table.

Update 02/27/2018:  Check out this piece in Eater.

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Also in this episode,  we head into the kitchen with Chef Arlyn Llewellyn  for  a pesto recipe with a surprising ingredient--carrot tops!

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