to be valued as a person in the workplace?

We've been participating in a lengthy and ongoing conversation about the value of labor in conjunction with our policy shift to redefine a Good Food Job as one that pays minimum wage or better.

Not minimum wage if you include food, housing, education and other benefits.

Not a livable wage.

Just minimum wage, which many states have already raised above the federal rate, and which the U.S. government is in a critical conversation to raise across the board - something that is particularly important for those states that have not yet adopted a minimum wage above $7.25 / hr. (For reference, they are: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee.)

Although we've been talking a lot about money lately, recent correspondence from wonderful folks like yourselves has sparked a reminder that the value of labor does not stand alone as an issue of payment. The equal and balancing factor of valuing those in the workplace is about respect for an individual's career path, no matter where they fall along it. 

The recent failure to acknowledge grocery store workers in vaccine rollouts, and ongoing debate about who qualifies as a front line worker, is a case study for the balance of pay + esteem. Low-wage, entry level positions like a grocery store clerk are traditionally regarded as stepping stones on a career path, not the end goal. And for many, this is a perfectly respectable truth. Equally respectable is a dedication to this role through your retirement, or until the foreseeable future, when you may not be sure what your next job will be.

In relation to the latter options, what deeply concerns us are the ways in which certain roles are diminished, disregarded, or belittled based on the perceived success of a particular career path. The pandemic has helped many to elevate those jobs to the category of hero...except when it comes to vaccines, in the case of grocery employees, and wages, in the case of a $15 federal minimum wage. It makes us wonder, do the folks working those jobs want hero status, or do they just want basic respect, and the actions and support systems that go along with it?

We could name a variety of jobs that are degraded and devalued, with low wages to underscore a failure of recognition: restaurant servers, dish washers, janitors and other cleaning specialists, postal workers, delivery persons, not to mention an entire category of work traditionally performed by women, such as nursing, elder care, and childcare. As Annie Lowery points out in her powerful, detailed article for The Atlantic, "The failure to lift the minimum wage from its current level accounts for roughly half of the inequality between women at the bottom and women in the middle of the wage distribution." 

As I was recently reminded in conversation with a Farmers' Market vendor who decided to take the need for company-wide pay raise into his own hands (to startlingly positive result), the idea of work as spiritual fulfillment has been touted by those privileged enough to choose to eschew payment in the context of its capitalistic ancestry. Others understand that perhaps their only pathway to power is through money. In this context, we're talking about power as recognition. Power as humanity. Not power over, but power with. 

In response to a higher federal minimum wage, Annie Lowrey writes, "Companies would have to make positions more interesting, more creative, more productive; they would have to invest in better equipment, and anticipate lower employee turnover. The higher minimum wage might even help nudge up productivity across the economy."

This sounds to us like an opportunity to acknowledge the dignity in all jobs at all levels. And it continues to underline the questions that sparked this thread in the first place, which Lowrey summarizes: "Does it make sense to allow businesses offering poverty wages to flourish? Do we want, as a society, to have an economy made up of businesses that rely on poverty wages?"

The answer, of course, is no...but you already knew that.

Next week, more on the impact of low or no-wage positions. Thank you for being here with us as we continue to unravel the knots and push forward for change. If there is something you'd like to hear more about, please get in touch. 

Yours in food, justice, and food justice,

Dor + Tay

photo (taken in 2019) by Ming Tang Evans for GFJ Stories