YouSaid · the spoken record

Saru Jayaraman

lines on the record: 62
first: 2016-02-20
most recent: 2016-02-20
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Yeah, you know, when I remember as a law student and right after law school being a card carrying foodie, I mean, I lived here in New York City. I ate three times out, you know, three times a day out. And I ate everything and I was totally oblivious. I cannot remember a single worker from all those years of eating out. And so now as a diner, when I eat out, I notice things. I notice the racial makeup of this restaurant. I notice how women are being treated. I think about things like paid sick days and wages. And I just, I think all of us, I wish I had known this 20 years ago to be a different kind of diner. And I would encourage all of us to be a different kind of diner to know what's happening in this industry and to really encourage this industry to take the high road.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I would say, well, definitely I think stick with it, you know, view it as a profession, give it your all, and join us and be a part with us of making it a better industry for everybody. So, you know, definitely focus on your career, you know, go all the way, definitely do your thing, but also join us in making it better because only by working with us to professionalize this industry will your work in this industry be valued.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly, and ensure that the employer is actually paying a full wage and let tips be on top of that. But if employers want to go further and eliminate oneself on”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, everybody seems to be really happy we interviewed workers, we interviewed customers. They've done it really well that they had town hall meetings with workers and customers and management. They just really had a very inclusive and transparent process. And that's how we would want it done. You know, our fight is not actually to eliminate tipping. We don't actually advocate for that. We're advocating for one fair wage with tips on top, as they have in California. Really to...”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so I'm sure everybody's heard a lot in the news about Danny Meyer and this whole move to eliminate tipping. You know, we, Danny Myers company had actually been a part of our association of high road restaurants for over a decade. But he and I actually hadn't sat down and when we finally did, we told him everything I've talked to you about today in terms of this whole history of tipping being rooted in slavery and the tip minimum wage and the impact on women and sexual harassment. And he said, you know, I've been thinking about these issues for 20 years. Let's think about moving in a different direction. And so we worked with them over a series of months and they actually did it right. They moved to eliminate tipping in a way that actually makes their workers whole. So they're ensuring that workers are now getting everything that they would have gotten in tips now through revenue share, now through wages.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Worked in Walmart for a year as a waitress, actually, as a domestic worker, as a house cleaner. And I can't remember what the third low-wage job she did, but she lived in her car, living on these wages. So that was really eye-opening. Fiction, I love, earned the throy, you know, a lot of books, international books. So real mix of things.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And that is the story of the immigrants. And for us, that's actually the story of this book, too. It's the high road. It's continuously seeking to do better.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Nicer weather, better opportunities. So that's the thing is that they've always sought better and better and better for their children.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, my parents actually, I was the first baby born in the United States. They came from India, had me in Rochester, and then we moved to California. Nicer weather.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, honestly, it was my family who are immigrants from India. And, you know, immigrants are, my parents, like most immigrants, are just incredibly resilient, persistent, very politically astute, very aware of what was going on and angry. And for me, it was about turning that anger into positive action. And that's what this has been about.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and we wish they were more diverse, but they are professionals who have a craft and do it really well. And we want everybody to be valued the way they're valued.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, most of the chain fine dining steakhouses are actually leaders in the National Restaurant Association. Most of them, so they all follow that same, what we call low road standard.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, but it's still the right way to actually have locally sourced sustainable organic food, you know, non-GMO. And it's possible.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They're growing really fast. Well, they're in California, they're in New York, they're in Tokyo, they're growing really rapidly, yeah.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, I think there are folks that are managing to get quality to scale and good conditions to scale. And so in the coffee world, one example is blue bottle coffee. They are.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's a new kind of McDonald's because McDonald's doesn't make any pretension to being a good employer. Starbucks does, but unfortunately still.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's not how it is. And even those workers, I think, you know, Starbucks for how much they're charging us for coffee could be paying these workers a lot better. But they're not well paid and they're just not given enough hours to survive.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's right. Really challenging, and when you're earning that little childcare is like half of your income and you can't even get back in time because you're asked to stay longer to clean up or whatever. Right. And you end up paying more.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, they've done a really amazing job at promoting the idea that they provide all of these things, but they have been under so much fire over the last many years from workers and journalists have uncovered this as well, that they just managed to consistently underpin just too little hours for workers to actually get those benefits. And so they employ lots of workers at very low wages with very little hours. Less than 30%.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Go to forkedththebook.com, and on that, you can actually see a website where you can see all the restaurants' ratings, how people faring on issues of wages, benefits, and promotions. You can also get the book and see the trailers. That's the best place.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In terms of chains, yeah, I mean, there are really fabulous, independent Mexican restaurants around the country that do it right, Lapalapa is one here in the city, in the village, fantastic Mexican restaurant provides paid sick days, has been an advocate for higher wages for a long time. But among the chains, Chipotle does stand out. I mean, all the other chains are pretty terrible. And I know Chipotle has been a lot in the news for other things lately, but I will say that they have been really good about asking what can we do better in terms of our workers and then actually doing it.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly Exactly. To the local franchisee. And it's actually not just McDonald's. This entire industry. So we spend $7 billion in taxpayer money on fast food chain workers' public assistance usage and $9.5 billion on full-service restaurant workers' public assistance usage. I'm talking about Applebee's and Olive Garden and iHop. Those workers get, we're doubly subsidizing those full-service restaurants because they're multi-billion dollar companies. On the one hand, we pay their workers wages through our tips because they're paying $2.13 an hour. On the other hand, we are paying for their workers' survival through public assistance. So we are doubly subsidizing the iHops and the Applebees on Olive Gardens of the world, and they're turning over incredible profits.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it's not just that they're not good employers, they're actually the leaders of the National Restaurant Association. So what's important to note about these folks is they don't just follow the minimum wage and pay it. They actually set the minimum wage. They're in Congress lobbying to keep the wage at $7.25.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I Yeah, I mean, I think it varies in different regions, but we have found several five guys restaurants that actually want to do the right thing, pay a livable wage, provide paid sick days. They're a little more varied across the country.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Since the beginning, they provide paid sick days, they provide benefits, opportunities for advancement. They've just done it differently, and they're growing and they're really successful. And come on, nobody could deny that Shake Shack is doing really well. Fantastic.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, yeah, Shake Shack actually pays higher than almost any other. There are only a few chains in and out Burger on the West Coast and in Texas is the highest paying chain in the country.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He owns all the craft, the craft restaurant, so craft steak, you know, witchcraft, all these different craft restaurants. As you might know, he's also the starved top chef. And he's actually known in this industry for really having people of color in all levels, management, servers, bartenders. Another really fabulous example is Andy Shalal, who owns bus boys and poets and Eatonville, all this chain of restaurants in Washington, D.C., really great restaurants, casual fine dining, people of color, women in all positions. So there are some really standout examples that I provide in the book. In terms of racial diversity, Danny Meyer also actually really does it well. He has a lot of people of color on the dining floor.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's right. And those are largely white guys. I will say there are some who do it really well. So Tom Calicio here in New York.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Unfortunately, it's really segregated here in New York City, believe it or not. Maybe as the average customer, you don't know who's in what position. But most servers in very fine dining restaurants in New York City are white men. I mean, just statistically, yeah. And the finest dining, the finer it is, the more you're talking about waiters and captains and bartenders and very fine dining, the more likely it's going to be white men. Women are not allowed to work the very best shifts in these fine dining restaurants. People of color have a very hard time getting into these jobs. Just statistically, in fact, there's a median wage differential of $4 an hour between white workers and workers of color. So you'll see people of color in the dining floor, but they'll be busers and runners. They won't be the server who interacts with you.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Restaurant across the street. Maybe you can. You have a shot at a promotion Exactly, and a lot of unfortunately the lack of mobility is very, very much due to race and gender. We find that people of color are not able to get into the very best jobs in the industry, which are server and bartending positions and very fine dining restaurants. Women are often blocked from those positions. We did what's called match pair audit testing studies where we sent in hundreds of white people and people of color, women and men, into very fine dining restaurants in four cities and found that people of color white people had twice the chance of a person of color, even when the person of color had a better resume at getting the best job. And that women were often blatantly told we don't hire women here if it's a very fine dining restaurant, even today.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, there's a myth in this industry that you can start as a dishwasher and own your own restaurant. Well, 66% of the 6,000 or 7,000 workers we've surveyed nationally have said they've never received a raise or a promotion. And all the turnover in this industry isn't actually people going through this industry to something else. It's people moving from restaurant to restaurant to restaurant just looking for better opportunities to feed their families because a lot of these $11 million workers actually take a lot of pride in their work. They really enjoy hospitality, but they want to move up and there generally no opportunities to move up.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No. Exactly. Exactly. And again, this whole system of forcing these workers to live for the most part off their tips, not paying them a wage, means that the only way to actually get your wages is to go to work and work for tips, even when you've got hepatitis A.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Nail for this is front page news locally. Yeah, public information CDC also reports a good one in 10 workers are currently working with extreme diarrhea and vomiting.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's right, because the same time they got the award from Michelle Obama, a worker in a Fayetteville, North Carolina restaurant was forced to work with hepatitis A. Oh, my goodness. 3,000 people had to get tested by the county, sued the restaurant, and won class action. That same year, there were two Norovirus outbreaks in Olive Gardens in Indiana and Illinois. I mean, it's an epidemic. It is a source of epidemics. It's a public health disaster.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, ninety percent of workers in this industry nationally do not have a single paid sick day, and two-thirds report cooking, preparing, and serving our food when they're ill. We have heard so many stories over the years workers working with typhoid fever, workers working with hepatitis. I talk a lot about olive garden. You know, olive garden got an award from Michelle Obama for being great for kids, healthy for kids because they had cares with the breadsticks.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, and the uniform was a tight t shirt that said fresh across the breasts. A very tight t shirt. And you have to ask yourself, what are we selling? Because, you know, it is the chilies on the Olive Gardens, but on the other hand, there's a whole new segment of this industry called the restaurant. And Hooters is not the only one. Come on. That's a real one.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The restaurants where people are scantily clad I took my two little girls to the chilies. They're three and five years old. It's a family restaurant, Chili's. And the uniform was, all the servers were women.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's right. I mean, in our opinion, all of our research shows that the real root of the problem is this two-tiered wage system because 70% of tipped workers who live on that lower wage of $2.13 or here in New York State, it's $7, whatever it is in the state, they rely completely on their tips. 70% of those workers are women. And they're women who work at iHop and Applebee's and basically pay their families on customer tips. And our research shows that having to rely on tips for your income not only makes you vulnerable to all kinds of gross and appropriate behavior from customers, but we also find that management actually encourages these workers to dress more sexy, wear tighter clothes, show more cleavage so that they can make more money in tips. And when you're forced to subject yourself to objectification, that makes you vulnerable to coworker and management harm.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The issue here is not that these aren't good professions, the issues that they're not valued as professions, both in terms of pay and benefits, in terms of even this whole idea that these workers should rely on the largesse of customers. It detracts from the professionalism of this industry.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's hard to pay student loans on these wages, but I will say the way we look at these jobs also is not right. You know, it should be okay for UC Berkeley graduate to go into this industry because these are skilled professions. These are very skilled professions. And in other countries like Europe, in Europe, these are seen hospitality is a profession. You go to school to be a hospitality professional. It's something seen as very skilled.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's right. And when you combine that with knowing this is the largest and fastest growing industry in America, what you end up with is essentially this industry proliferating the low-wage economy, the low-wage floor of the entire economy and bringing down the floor for the entire nation. And these are the jobs that are going to be available for our children. I teach at UC Berkeley. I would say a good third to a half of my students work in the industry, and many stay in the industry after college now with a UC Berkeley degree, because these are the jobs that are available.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Over a century, right Exactly. Very, very little sense. I mean, honestly, that was the argument of the cotton industry, right? That they, their whole business model and the economy depended on free labor and we're still making the same argument today. It really brings question of is this a sustainable business model?”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because they originally, the original tipped workers in this country were actually former slaves, both restaurant workers and pullman train car porters. That's amazing workers. I actually didn't either till we did research for the book. And this industry, the restaurant industry, made the argument that they wouldn't be able to survive if they actually had to pay these workers a wage. So they basically hired newly freed slaves, demanded the right to pay them nothing. That idea was codified into the very first minimum wage law passed in 1938, which gave tipped workers the right to a zero-dollar minimum wage. These were mostly black workers, former slaves. And we've gone from that $0 wage to a $2.13 wage today.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's a big deal in our industry, too. Our industry has the highest rates of turnover of any industry in the United States, and our research shows you can cut your turnover almost in half. Wow. by treating your workers well and paying them well.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They're actually the ones that are thriving in California. They're thriving. Yeah. And even the chains, I mean, across the board, everybody's doing better if you look at job growth in these seven states in the 43 states. But maybe the best evidence of this is the 175 restaurants that have worked with us to form an alternative national restaurant association called Rays. And they range from chains all the way down to small mom and pop restaurants around the country that actually provide livable even what they call thrivable wages benefits, advancement opportunities. And they're doing well not in spite of treating their workers well and paying them well, but actually because they're treating their workers well, they find less turnover, higher profitability, higher profit productivity. The workers are happy, the customers are happy, and they are thriving as businesses.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. Exactly. And fine meat just keeps going up. Exactly. It's funny. People always ask about cost of food going up with labor, but you don't ask, does cost of food go up with food price increases or rental price increases, which, as you're right, are much bigger part of a business than labor. And the labor.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's so true All the equipment and everything else. Food prices have risen astronomically over the last many years much faster than wages, way faster than wages.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I live in California and I got to say I spend way more on eating out here in New York City or in DC where the wage is $2.77 an hour than when I eat at home in California. That's a function.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, what we're looking at right now are policies that are moving in lots of states around the country and in Congress called One Fair Wage, Getting Rid of this two-tiered wage system, having everybody follow California and the seven states that have done this, and just let this industry, like every other industry, pay the full minimum wage, let tips be what they're meant to be, which is a bonus or a gratuity on top of a wage, not the way wage itself.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's right They don't care about $11 minimum wage. That's right. Frankly, it's trending upwards everywhere. This is an industry that's growing astronomically everywhere. We just made world history last year becoming the first nation on Earth in which we're now spending more money on eating out than we do in the money on eating food in the home.”
2016-02-20 · Masters in Business · Interview With Saru Jayaraman: Masters in Business (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source