Report: Most LGBTQ+ restaurant workers experience homophobia, transphobia while on the clock

In 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that as many as a million foodservice staffers left the industry, many of them LGTBQ+ workers who are reporting spikes in sexual harassment and widespread transphobia and homophobia.

A June report from advocacy group One Fair Wage and the UC Berkeley Food Labor Research Center outlines just how distressing the situation has become. A staggering 80% of tipped workers reported that they’d experienced transphobic or homophobic comments from customers, supervisors or colleagues.

Those employees' dependence on tips puts them at a higher risk of harassment and assault than their salaried counterparts because they may be hesitant to speak up and risk losing gratuities, according to the study.

“It’s clear that living off tips results in rampant harassment and discrimination across the restaurant industry,” One Fair Wage President Saru Jayaraman said in the report. “Because of their reliance on pleasing customers for their income, LGBTQ+ peoples, women, and people of color are all put at risk of dangerous sexual harassment, targeted harassment based on race and sexual orientation, and assault in an industry that is disproportionately people of color.”

Jayaraman urged lawmakers to raise the subminimum wage to avoid economic instability for tipped workers. That would empower more workers to reject harassment on the job, she added.

To be sure, the report's numbers aren't pretty.

According to researchers, 82% of LGBTQ+ respondents said they have witnessed sexual behaviors or comments at work that make them uncomfortable, while 67% report being targeted by those behaviors or comments.

What's more, 72% of LGBTQ+ workers said they've contemplated leaving their jobs due to harassment, higher than the 41% of straight workers who considered leaving over the same concerns.

More than half — 58% — of respondents also reported that they experienced or witnessed transphobic or homophobic comments or behaviors from customers, supervisors or colleagues.

The report dovetails with other recent One Fair Wage research that suggests the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded the hospitality industry's sexual harassment crisis.

A December 2020 analysis from the group posited that a drop in customers and tips gave individual patrons more power over workers — especially women, people of color and LGBTQ+ people. Those workers often were expected to enforce public health guidelines on customers unwilling to cooperate.

Another One Fair Wage survey from earlier this year found that restaurant workers reported that sexual harassment increased since the start of the pandemic and that LGBTQ+ people noticed that spike at a higher rate than their straight counterparts — 51% versus 41%.

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