FORUM 09.26.13 - Olive Garden parent argues it shouldn’t have to pay wages – customers should tip.

As the fast food workers’ minimum wage campaign gains momentum, another group of workers is expanding the fight to address one of the least-known economic outrages.

You may not realize it, but the measly $7.25 an hour McDonald’s and other fast-food giants pay their workers is three times higher than what many large sit-down restaurants pay their servers.

Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United), which I lead, is fighting for an increase in the rock-bottom pay – $2.13 an hour – mandated for tipped workers.

Take Darden, the world’s largest full-service restaurant chain and parent company of the popular Olive Garden, The Capital Grille and Red Lobster eateries, among others. Most of Darden’s servers earn the minimum wage for tipped workers: $2.13 an hour. Since tips can prove unpredictable, these workers often face tremendous economic insecurity.

Essentially, Darden and its cronies in the National Restaurant Association argue that they shouldn’t have to pay their workers wages – customers should. These companies are prime examples of the eagerness of big business to make the public shoulder the burden of inadequate wages, all in the name of short-term profits.

One example of how these restaurant empires offload costs is Darden’s refusal to pay earned sick days. The result is that its servers – who endure a poverty rate that’s three times higher than the rest of the American workforce experiences – are compelled to work even when sick or injured.

Especially when workers live entirely on tips because their wage is so low, they have no choice but to work when sick. In once case, thousands of customers of an Olive Garden in North Carolina had to be immunized because an infected worker felt she couldn’t miss a day’s pay. This incident led to a class-action lawsuit against Darden. Customers understood the issue was about irresponsible business practices.

Despite the industry’s low standards, instances of racial discrimination, wage theft and other exploitative practices, Darden still declares one of its core values to be establishing a “sustainable” working environment. But, as New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman says, “if you care about sustainability, it’s time to expand our definition to include workers.”

The recent wave of protests fast food workers are holding across the nation is building momentum for a higher federal minimum wage. In past battles, raises to the federal minimum for tipped workers have been stripped at the last minute from the laws that ultimately went into effect.

ROC United and our allies like the National Employment Law Project are working hard to ensure that Congress doesn’t bypass an increase to the tipped-minimum wage again under lobbyist pressure Please urge your lawmakers to support the legislation. Tell them it’s essential for the health and well-being of workers – and everyone who dines in restaurants.

SARU JAYARAMAN is the co-director of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United.