Camino is one of several East Bay restaurants that has re-formatted its entire wage structure and eliminated tipping in light of the new Oakland minimum wage. Photo: Emilie Raguso
On March 2, the city of Oakland raised its minimum wage by 36%. At $12.25 per hour, the new wage is the highest in the country — for now. San Francisco matched this wage on May 1, and Emeryville will leapfrog both cities in July.
The wage increase was voted into law last November as a part of Measure FF. Over 80% of Oakland residents supported the measure. And while all Oakland businesses are now required to abide by the new wage, conversations about its benefits and repercussions and have been most active in the restaurant industry.
Restaurants have notoriously small operational budget margins, and are, according to Saru Jayaraman, the co-director of Restaurant Opportunity Centers United (ROC-United) and director of the Food Labor Research Center at UC Berkeley, one of the largest employers of low-wage workers in the United States. Jayaraman reports that seven out of the ten lowest paying jobs in the country are restaurant jobs.(...)
Read the rest of East Bay restaurants adapt to new minimum wage (5,957 words)
By Kate Williams. |
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