‘Lemme see that pretty face.’ Service workers report spike in harassment amid pandemic
Bartenders, restaurant servers and other food service workers face increased health risks during the COVID-19 pandemic — and also less-than-pleasant treatment from customers whose tips account for much of their pay, according to a new survey.
A new report from the nonprofit One Fair Wage says tipped workers have seen a “dramatic” uptick in harassment during the pandemic. Forty percent of service industry employees surveyed for the report said they have seen a “noticeable change in the frequency of unwanted sexualized comments” from guests.
Many of the comments involved male customers asking female servers to “remove their mask so that they could judge their looks, (and) implicitly, determine their tips on that basis,” according to the report.
”Lemme see that pretty face under there. Take it off for me, will you?” one worker reported hearing from a customer, according to the survey.
“Pull that mask down so I can see if I want to take you home later,” a customer reportedly told another worker.
When they refused to oblige, workers said, they often faced hostility followed by a smaller-than-usual gratuity, according to the report.
One Fair Wage, a U.S organization that advocates for ending sub-minimum wage pay for workers who receive tips, said it surveyed about 1,675 food service workers in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. The organization’s president Saru Jayaraman noted that the states chosen for the survey had much tougher coronavirus guidelines for restaurants compared to others, yet service workers still faced increased risk of exposure and sexual harassment.
“The experiences of workers are much, much worse in states with more lax guidelines and protocols around masks and social distancing,” Jayaraman told McClatchy News. “We have heard the same stories from workers in Michigan and California, and other parts of the country.”
A staggering 83% of respondents said their tips have decreased overall since the start of the pandemic, highlighting the financial impact on service workers whose restaurants or bars were forced to close or operate with limited capacity.
Many of the respondents expressed concern for their health and safety amid customers’ unwillingness to comply with COVID-19 safety protocols, the report says. More than half said customers who were asked to follow coronavirus safety protocols, such as wearing a mask, slashed their tips.
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“Everyone is just becoming more and more hostile and have zero manners whatsoever,” one worker reported, according to One Fair Wage. “[B]artending has never been this difficult; every shift I’m on the verge of having a nervous breakdown and in the two bar jobs I have, we keep losing bartenders.”
Restaurants could do a better job at enforcing health protocols so employees don’t have to, the report says.. It also points to previous studies showing lower rates of sexual harassment in states where service industry workers are paid a “full minimum wage,” in addition to tips.
“Paying workers a full minimum wage would empower them to enforce safety protocols on customers and to reject sexual harassment and the life-threatening demands on women to remove their masks for the sexual pleasure of customers,” the report reads.
She wanted to help waiters during restaurant shutdown. Scammers had other ideas.
Other key findings from the survey include:
Eighty-four percent of respondents said they’ve been within six feet of at least one person who isn’t wearing a mask during their work shifts.
More than half of respondents (58%) said they were hesitant to enforce COVID-19 safety measures out of fear they would be tipped less.
About 44% of workers reported one or more of their colleagues had contracted coronavirus.
