In the News

Racial Bias Seen in Hiring of Waiters

The Ford Foundation has long been committed to helping low-wage workers gain access to good jobs and the resources necessary to achieve financial stability. This includes ensuring that the workplace is a fair, safe and equitable environment for all workers. Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York, a Ford grantee, recently released a survey of New York City restaurants. The study found that the restaurant industry is not providing equal opportunities to all of its workers. Workers of color and women, in particular, are subject to visible and deep-seated inequities.

Published on The New York Times City Room blog: March 31, 2009
By Jennifer 8. Lee

White job applicants were more likely to receive followup interviews at the restaurants, be offered jobs, and given information about jobs, and their work histories were less likely to be investigated in detail, he said Tuesday. He spoke at a news conference releasing the report in a Manhattan restaurant.

"There really should not be a lot of difference in how the two of them are treated," Mr. Bendick said. He was hired by advocacy groups for restaurant workers as part of a larger report called "The Great Service Divide: Occupational Segregation and Equality in the New York City Restaurant Industry." He has made a career of studying discrimination, ranging from racism in the advertising industry to sexism in firefighting...

The report was commissioned by the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York and The New York City Restaurant Industry Coalition, two groups behind a 2005 study of restaurant workplace practices, "Behind the Kitchen Door: Pervasive Inequality in New York’s Thriving Restaurant Industry".

Read the complete story »

Visit the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York to read the complete study.