Serving Work: Understanding Variation in Waitstaff Job Quality in Washington, the U'S' and Canada

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Serving WorkUnderstanding Variation in
Waitstaff Job Quality in Washington, the U.S.
(and Canada)

• Anna Haley-Lock, Ph.D.
• UW-School of Social Work
• annahl_at_u.washington.edu

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Acknowledgements

• Economic Opportunity Institute
• Melissa Ford Shah (Sr. Researcher, LI) Diane
  Arnold (MSW 07)
• Stephanie Ewert (UW-Sociology, RA
  Extraordinaire)
• Funding WCPC Emerging Scholars Grant Harry
  Bridges Center for Labor Studies

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Todays Agenda

• Motivations for research focus
• Research questions
• Methods
• (Early) findings
• Implications of work next steps

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Motivations for research focus

• Building knowledge about the realities of
  low-wage work
• From cashiers housekeepers, to advocates
  hotline workers, to waiters
• investigating the missing link between personal
  barriers and stable low-wage work
• Part of larger study that includes independent WA
  restaurants
• Making organizational research (directly)
  policy-relevant
• Studying how policies may shape work from the
  labor demand side
• Identifying strategies for changing private
  business practice public policy/programs to be
  more worker and family supportive

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Research questions

• How do waitstaff jobs their benefits and other
  conditions vary in quality
• and how do private employers and public
  employment policies shape that variation?
• What are the implications of observed variation
  in job quality for workers and their families?
  (And for organizations themselves?)

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Accounting for variable employer human resource
practices

• Established literatures consider
• Knowledge, ethics (the dumb and mean
  hypotheses)
• Production process/technical imperative
• Business strategy/market niche/customer tastes
• Local labor supply demand conditions
• Regulative, normative environments
• as potential determinants of how much employers
  invest in human resources by
  creating internal, versus spot, labor markets
  (Althauser Kalleberg, 1981)

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Methods

• Sampling strategy was intended to control for
  variation in
• Production process/technical imperative
  business strategy
• Local labor supply demand conditions
• Regulative, normative environments
• By studying chains Neighborhood Spot
  Pancake Place
• And the focal (regulated) job of waiter
• Within 2 states Washington (Seattle) Illinois
  (Chicago)
• Drawing on past organizational research, we
  measured
• Workplace opportunity
• Wages tips, fringe benefits, scheduling
• As well as a range of workplace and workforce
  characteristics

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Findings where you want to wait

• Best of the Best Spot on in Washington
• At a Washington Neighborhood Spot, Joan earns
  7.93/hour plus tips ranging from 12.50 to
  40/hour, and tips out just 1 of her sales. She
  gets 1 week of paid vacation after a year, and
  can sign up for employer-provided health
  insurance for herself and dependents.
  50 of waiters stay 2 years.
• Best of the Illinois sites Another
  Neighborhood Spot
• Shelly earns 4.50/hour (after the tip credit)
  plus tips ranging from 7.50 to 25/hour, and
  tips out 2.5 of her sales. She receives half
  off any food during her shifts, gets 1 paid week
  of vacation after a year, and can enroll in
  employer-provided health insurance for herself
  and dependents. 75 of waiters stay 2
  years.
• Best of the Pancake Place sites Washington
  again
• Emily, in a Seattle suburb, earns 7.93/hour and
  tips ranging from 4 to 20/hour, and tips out 2
  of her sales. Unlike waiters at other PP sites,
  she gets paid vacation after working for 2 years,
  as well as 8 in food during each shift. She
  receives no other benefits.
  50 of waiters stay 2 years.

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Findings where waiting never ends

• Worst of Washington Sleepless in Seattle?
• Betty works for a Pancake Place located in north
  Seattle, earning 7.93/hour and between 8 and
  12/hour in tips, with a tip-out of 2 of sales.
  She gets free food during shifts, but no
  benefits. 20 of waiters stay 2 years.
• Worst of the Neighborhood Spots
• Tom works at a Chicago site of this chain,
  earning 4.50/hour, between 5 and 20/hour in
  tips, with a 2.5 tip-out requirement. She gets
  50 off meals during shifts, and may enroll in
  employer-provided employee and dependent health
  insurance, but receives no other benefits.
  
  25 of waiters stay 2 years.
• Worst (of Illinois, and of all Pancake Places)
• Chandra earns 4.50/hour, between 3 and X/hour
  in tips, and tips out 1 of sales. She can eat a
  free meal during a shift, but receives no other
  benefits.
  6 of waiters stay 2 years.

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Some summary findings

• Neighborhood Spots tend to reward waiter jobs in
  more of an internal labor market model while
  Pancake Places situate waitstaff in more
  decidedly spot labor markets.
• Washington restaurants are for the most part more
  lucrative and supportive for workers than
  those in Illinois
• Men are most represented in Neighborhood Spots
• Women, in Pancake Places
• And waiters with dependents, in Washington sites
  (mostly Neighborhood Spots)

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Implications next steps

• Why does variation in employment practices
  matter?
• for theory?
• for workers and families?
• for public policy?
• Next steps heading to Canada, of course