Digesting restaurant wages:
The Massachusetts Food Industry & education gap
It is a Monday a little after 11:00 PM in a restaurant in Seaport, Boston, with dishes still piled up on some tables and customers that Luis Ayala, 19, has to wait to leave before he can set up the tables, clean the floor, and get everything ready for the morning staff to open the restaurant where he works as a busser. “This is how all my Mondays go, well, all my days,” Luis says. As a first-generation working-class immigrant, he must work full-time to provide for himself and his family.
People eating past closing time at Seaport restaurant, October 2023.
Luis Ayala, working during closing time at Seaport restaurant, October 2023.
“It’s always the same: customers in trajes (suits) come to eat,” he says in Spanglish, referring to the people who work in nearby offices and get dinner at the restaurant he works at, “they say they’re regulars and stay late drinking, so I have to wait until the last one leaves.” On the weekends, he works all day but only works evening and night shifts during the week because, in the mornings, he goes to school at the Phoenix Charter Academy in Chelsea—right outside of Boston.
The Phoenix is a school focused on supporting challenged and systemically marginalized students; its goal is to teach students to take ownership of their futures by succeeding in high school despite age, economic, social, racial, and other unequal gaps. Luis, for instance, is a young adult immigrant who arrived in the country just this past July. Among limited options for self-sufficiency, he found hope in early mornings at the school in Chelsea and late nights working in a Seaport on a minimum wage.
Luis Ayala on the way to school, Friday, October 27, 2023.
However, despite Luis’s hard work, his position as an unskilled employee sets him behind the salary gap in Massachusetts, earning roughly $700.00 in his weekly check—with at least 40 hours of labor to reach that amount. The Massachusetts Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics of 2022 found that the average hourly for all occupations, skilled and unskilled, is $36.83, or $76,600. Meanwhile, Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations earn an hourly average of $18.38, or $38,230 annually.
Luis Ayala payroll and expenses breakdown.
“It is not always enough, you know?” he shares without overthinking it. What I earn is strictly to pay rent, bills, the CharlieCard, and groceries to pack dinner for work. And sometimes, I am short of money for groceries.” Although the Massachusetts Minimum Wage Program states that minimum fair wage laws and regulations should cover pay for deductions for meals, uniforms, and required wage records, many restaurants neglect the regulations, making those expenses one more expense weighing down income.
People can choose whether or not to stay in food preparation and serving-related occupations. Yet factors beyond salary and working conditions often influence these choices.
“Currently, there are a number of issues facing the restaurant industry,” Stephen Clark, Vice President of Government Affairs for the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, told MassLive. “The first one is labor. Labor shortages and the inability to field positions.” The Bureau of Labor Statistics also reported that in November 2021, 6.9% of workers in the food industry quit, which amounts to almost 1 million people. Furthermore, from July to November, over 4.1 million people left the restaurant industry in the United States.
Some people like Luis choose to stay in restaurant jobs that no one else wants to keep, hoping it is temporary. “People think about the restaurant industry as a stopover on their way to another job rather than a career,” Clark says. Luis has access to education and plans to graduate from high school, get professional training, or attend college. Yet, for a person who does not have access to education as a tool to acquire professional skills, the possibilities are less than the ones Luis might have.
The 2022 Education Pays Population Survey by the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics found that unemployment is higher in measurement with less educational attainment. However, it is essential to highlight these education categories only reflect the highest level of education, high school to doctoral degree, and do not consider on-the-job training and apprenticeships, which can impact earnings and unemployment rates.
Only a few people who share Luis’s intersectional identities have education access as part of their livelihood priorities. In 2022, the educational attainment in Massachusetts indicated that 46.6% of the population had a bachelor’s or higher degree. Yet, in all higher education levels in Massachusetts, White female and male students have the highest graduation rates compared to their Latinx and African-American counterparts. On the other hand, Latino males and African-American males have the lowest graduation rates.
With all this context, it is discernible why people rely on and stay in food preparation and serving-related occupations: There is a need for income regardless, and restaurants are a quick solution that does not require education skills inaccessible for almost half of the Massachusetts population.
The industry issues are visible to the Massachusetts Restaurant Association. Clark says, “Beyond the future, businesses are trying to highlight the benefits of working within the industry, like flexible schedules and the potential growth.” He continues, “If someone comes on as hourly, there’s a very easy path to management in the restaurant industry.” Yet, the substantial difference in pay between hourly employees and upper management keeps proving the disparity still favors executives. It does not adequately compensate lower-level employees for their contributions to the organization.
Luis does not expect to become a manager by stepping into the ‘potential field growth’ Clark differed. “We know how that goes; we become manager assistants with even worse payments and no chances to get professional training to be in a higher position,” concerns Luis, referring to executive levels almost impossible to obtain without proper professional formation.
The Massachusetts government has started working on a potential long-term solution to fill the education attainment, employment, and wage gap. The Training Opportunities Program (TOP) offers unemployed individuals the opportunity to receive benefits while receiving full-time training in approved programs to develop new job skills. Participants in the program receive financial assistance while they pursue training and education that will enhance their employability and increase the likelihood of securing gainful employment. The program aspires to provide participants with the tools and resources they need to succeed in their chosen fields.
Luis Ayala walking out of his job, October 2023.
Luis Ayala and other restaurant employees waiting for the SL3 public transportation at the World Trade Center station past midnight, October 2023.
The SL3 arrives at the World Trade Center station past midnight, October 2023.
It is past 1:00 AM, and all the customers are gone. Luis rushes the closing process: Cleans the last tables, wipes the chairs, sweeps the floors, turns the lights off, and closes the doors around 1:20 AM. “Let’s go, I got to catch the last Silver Line shuttle to Eastie and, maybe, the last blue T,” Luis runs with urgency—one he hopefully will overcome as he accesses professional skills at school. It is 01:37 AM, and the LS3 arrives at the World Trade Center station, but he realizes it is too late to catch the last train home. As on many other days, he has to walk from Airport to Orient Heights, but he goes off as he has to be at school that same morning on Tuesday.
Luis Ayala at the Airport station on his way home past 2 AM, October 2023.
Originally published on Adobe Express website builder on October 30, 2023.