Win With Working
People.
We are 13 million restaurant workers, millions of service workers, and thousands of small business employers. We’re drowning. The cost of groceries went up. The cost of gas went up. Our rent went up. Our wages didn’t.
Photo: Demetrius Freeman / One Fair Wage
Three Doors. Pick Yours.
However you come to this work, there's a way in. Workers join the union. Restaurants go high-road. Consumers vote with where they eat.
Service workers are the backbone of the economy. One Fair Wage fights for fair wages on behalf of the 13.6 million restaurant workers nationwide. We focus on restaurant workers, and we advocate for raises for all tipped workers, workers making a subminimum wage, and every low-wage service worker.
Five Things. Every Day.
We Organize
300,000 restaurant and service worker members. State campaigns in CA, CO, IL, MD, NY, OH, PA, and AZ. The country's largest restaurant worker network.
We Disrupt The Narrative
Restaurants aren't short on workers — they're short on pay. Our research, polling, and storytelling change how the country talks about this industry.
We Mobilize Voters
Tipped and service workers are a swing-state voting bloc. We turn out the vote on wage ballots and back candidates who back working people.
We Fight For Policy
Won the end of the subminimum wage in D.C. (2022) and Chicago (2023). Now driving the federal Living Wage For All Act and state campaigns nationwide.
We Provide Services
Worker rights info and referrals. English For Restaurant and Service Workers. Low-cost Just Safe Food certification. Job board. Leadership training. Community.
My great-grandmother was enslaved. My mother worked three jobs. I’m a server working two jobs. When does this end?
300,000 Members. These Are Some Of Them.
Workers from the OFW network, in their own words. Drawn from 93 published reports documenting restaurant industry conditions across the country.
Nobody should be paid a subminimum wage. Even though we are tipped workers, that does not guarantee tips. Not everyone tips. And not everyone tips enough.… What is the point of working if I cannot pay the rent and bills?
Gina Server, 4 years — New York City
When the pandemic hit, I had $47 in my bank account. That’s the reality of living on tips.
Server COVID-era testimony
It is freedom, to be honest. When you don’t have enough money, you’re always living on the edge, you’re always thinking what’s next.
Miguel Food service worker, 26+ years — New York
I have been working in the service industry for 11 years. I love working in this industry, but it is really hard to plan for the future because of the volatility of the income we receive.
Malika Henderson Server, 11-year veteran — New York
I work full-time but still qualify for public assistance. That should not be possible in the world’s richest country.
Restaurant worker OFW member testimony
We were essential, we were on the front line delivering food to people who did not want to put themselves at risk, but we were putting ourselves at risk.
Roman Food delivery driver — New York
If that’s not slavery, I don’t know what is. That’s slavery, period. Your life is in someone else’s hands.
Adrinne Hicks Airport skycap — Houston, TX
They tried to hire me for less and I just declined to work there. I am gifted enough to not have to work for pennies and blessed enough to be able to hold out for the pay I want.
Chanta Hunter Bartender, 15 years — New York City
I’ve worked in fine dining for 15 years and I still can’t afford to live in Chicago without roommates.
Server Fine dining, 15 years — Chicago, IL
We don’t just live paycheck to paycheck — we live shift to shift. The government told us they would take care of us. But you forgot a huge part of your constituents. You forgot about us.
Sarah May Bartender & cook — White Lake, MI
Quotes from the OFW Quote Bank (370+ entries). Full citations and context in our research library.
1,000 Restaurants. These Are Some Of The Owners.
The RAISE High Road Restaurants network is now 1,000 restaurants strong. These owners pay One Fair Wage with tips on top — and tell you why it’s better for their business. See the RAISE High Road program →
Perhaps the employers complaining about their staffing problems should re-examine the way they pay and treat their employees.
Michael Fuquay Owner, The Queensboro — Queens, NY
Unlike what some would like to have you believe, people who work in the restaurant industry are skilled professionals, and we ought to start treating them like they are. It is time to raise wages.
Ji Hye Kim Owner, Miss Kim’s — Ann Arbor, MI
California has outperformed the system. Over that time frame, they had six consecutive years of positive guest traffic — not just positive sales, but positive guest traffic — as the minimum wage was going up.
Robert Verostek CFO, Denny’s — investor call
The subminimum wage. Working for tips, a legacy of slavery, keeps our industry backward looking and our workers mired in jobs that encourage harassment, racism, wage theft and poverty.
Michael Landgarten Owner, Corner Pub Kittery & Lil’s — Kittery, ME
To offer a fair wage, everyone must be on board. We can’t be the only restaurant on the block that increases prices to cover higher wages. To be fair to everyone, this needs to be a mandate.
Beth Wagner Owner, Honky Tonk BBQ — Chicago, IL
Valued, happy employees are the key ingredients to a successful restaurant.
Ilma Lopez Co-owner, Chaval — Portland, ME
Quotes from our research library. Restaurant owners apply to the RAISE High Road program at highroadrestaurants.org.
State Campaigns
Active OFW campaigns. Click a state for the local fight, the polling, the bills, the legislators, and the way to plug in.
$30 for All
Workers gathered 100,000+ signatures and qualified the first voter-enacted $30 measure. Supervisors delayed the vote — workers keep organizing.
See CA →$27 for All
$27 statewide, ending all subminimum wages — building on Chicago's 2023 ordinance, where restaurants thrived and workers now fight a phase-out pause.
See IL →$25 for All
Baltimore tipped-wage phase-out, with statewide reintroduction planned for the 2027 legislative session.
See MD →$30 for All
NYC City Council bill Int 0757-2026 plus a statewide push to end the tipped subminimum wage.
See NY →$25 for All
Initiative 87 — $25 floor for every D.C. worker, no subminimum wages. Signatures collecting now for a 2027 special election, in the city that passed Initiative 82 by 74–26.
See D.C. →$25 for All
Workers won at the ballot, the courts restored it, the legislature clawed part of it back. Building to $25 by 2028 with UAW.
See MI →$25 for All
Summer 2026 coalition kickoff — One Fair Wage and state partners building the statewide push.
See CT →93 Reports. The Receipts.
Polling. Wage analysis. Harassment data. Small-business comparatives. Racial-equity audits. The country's deepest research library on tipped work — and it's all downloadable.
Short Changed
Why "no tax on tips" will not make subminimum wages livable. The rebuttal to the federal framing, with the math.
Read →Persistent Legacy of Slavery
The historical and legal lineage of the subminimum tipped wage — from Reconstruction to today.
Read →Wage Shortage, Not a Worker Shortage
Restaurants don't have a staffing crisis. They have a pay crisis. The data on how subminimum pay drives turnover.
Read →
Saru Jayaraman
The subminimum wage for tipped workers is a direct legacy of slavery, created after Emancipation to allow restaurant owners the ability to hire newly freed Black workers — women in particular — and force them to rely on tips.
Author of Forked: A New Standard for American Dining (Oxford University Press) and Behind the Kitchen Door. Director of the Food Labor Research Center at UC Berkeley. Available for keynotes, panels, university speaking engagements, and on-camera interviews.
The Living Wage
For All Act
OFW and our LW4A coalition partners wrote the federal bill. Rep. Delia Ramirez (IL-03) introduced H.R. 8555 in the House on April 28, 2026 with co-leads Reps. Mejía (NJ-11), García (IL-04), and Simon (CA-12), plus 30 House cosponsors and growing. On June 25, 2026, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) launched the Senate companion at the U.S. Capitol, cosponsored by Sens. Blumenthal (D-CT), Kim (D-NJ), and Wyden (D-OR). The Living Wage For All Act is now in both chambers of Congress, backed by a 100+ organization coalition.
Three core provisions
- $25/hour federal floor — large employers (500+ workers or $1B+ revenue) by 2031; smaller employers by 2038
- Indexed to two-thirds of national median wage — never frozen for 17 years again
- End all subminimum wages — no carve-outs for tipped workers, workers with disabilities, or anyone else
Photo: Demetrius Freeman — U.S. Capitol, April 28, 2026.
Living Wage For All
OFW manages and co-leads Living Wage For All — a 100+ organization coalition winning $25 living wages for every worker, no exceptions. The coalition’s Steering Committee:
Plus SEIU, AFT, RWDSU, NOW, SPLC, Common Cause, the National Urban League, and more than 100 other organizations backing the federal bill.
One Job Should Be Enough
Wherever you stand in this — worker, employer, ally — there's a way in. Join the largest restaurant and service worker organization in the country.
Join OFW Donate