1. Understanding Occupational Segregation and Inequality
in Detroit’s Restaurant Industry
Andrea Alajbegovic, Community Based Research Fellow
Minsu Longiaru, Coordinator, Restaurant Opportunities Center of Michigan
The Restaurant Opportunities Center of Michigan is a non-profit organiza-
tion that works to improve working conditions for restaurant workers in
the metro Detroit area. It is a membership based organization, a workers
center and is focused on organizing restaurant workers. The organization
empowers works to be their own leaders to make change in the industry. It
is one of 8 independent affiliated ROC organizations around the country.
ROC-MI engages in six programs: 1.) developing new restaurant worker or-
ganizing projects, such as the Andiamo campaign, in which ROC members
picketed every week for 6 months in order to force the restaurant to im-
prove working conditions and wages for workers; 2.) ROC-MI provides
training programs for restaurant workers as well as technical assistance to
restaurant worker organizing projects; 3.) conducts research on the restau-
rant industry; and 4.) engages in policy work to help improve conditions in
the restaurant industry.
BACKGROUND
The Great Service Divide explores occupational segregation and inequality
in the restaurant industry. This study was done in New York City and now
there are three simultaneous studies happening in Detroit, Chicago and
New Orleans. This need for this study stems from the Behind the Kitchen
Door report that was published in 2010 by ROC-MI. As demonstrated in
that report, discrimination and inequality plague the restaurant industry,
particularly for immigrants, workers of color and women. There is a need
to further explore the extent which this discrimination exists, and the Great
Service Divide addresses this by exploring discrimination from the time a
worker seeks entry into a position.
The goals of the Great Service Divide, or GSD, study are as follows:
• To build on the findings of Behind the Kitchen Door in terms of occupa-
tional segregation and inequality
• To provide deeper analysis of apparent and not-so-apparent inequali-
ties in Detroit’s find-dining restaurants
• To demonstrate whether or not the restaurant industry is failing to pro-
vide equal opportunities to all of is workers
DESCRIPTION
The primary method that has been used is Matched Pair Testing.
During this process, a pair of research assistants (“testers”) applies for the
same job (a server/bartending position) simultaneously. The pairs are as-
signed similar résumés and job objectives, and are matched based on their
personality as well. Effectively, the only difference between the two of
them on paper is their race and/or ethnicity. Using this method assumes
that the only reason why an employer would prefer one candidate over an-
other is because of their demographic differences.
This method allows for closer examination of the industry and provides
both statistical and anecdotal data. Other methods that will be used in this
study, such as worker and employer interviews, will illuminate attitudes
and behaviors that underlie occupational segregation and discrimination.
Matched Pair Testing, however, directly measures it’s prevalence in the in-
dustry.
The process of coordinating a matched pair tests is the following: job
openings are searched on Craigslist for the metro Detroit area. If an open-
ing is found, information about the restaurant and menu are given to both
testers so that they will have background on the restaurant. Testers go to
the restaurant with copies of their fabricated résumés. They enter the res-
taurants within 20 minutes of each other. While in the restaurant, they at-
tempt to obtain an interview from management. After their experience in
the restaurant, they fill out a 27-question questionnaire that asks them to
describe what happened from the moment they step into the restaurant.
The questionnaire also asks them to describe whom they spoke with and
how they were treated. Data from each questionnaire is inputted into an
Access database within 24 hours of completion.
METHODS
LITERATURE REVIEW
TABLES
In searching for available literature, key words that were used to search the University of
Michigan library database of articles were“racial profiling,”“workers,”“discrimination,”“hiring,”“em-
ployment,”“restaurants,”and“Detroit.” These articles address the issues in a variety of ways.
Articles found in the available literature displayed an emphasis on Latino/a workers, as well as
legal and illegal immigrants. These articles also focused on specific areas of the United States
rather than on a national scale. Cameron’s (2000) study on the effects of workers centers in
Southern California focuses on the successes of Latinos who organized themselves. Organizing a
group of people to fight for their rights is central to the mission of ROC-MI. An important point to
realize in Cameron’s article is that workers and their allies worked from the inside of industries
and shops rather than waiting for unions to come in from the outside. This is important in con-
necting with another article by Téllez et al (2011), which outlines the movement based out of the
Arizona Interfaith Alliance for Worker Justice, a faith-labor alliance. The AIAWJ is a workers’rights
center that focuses on the needs of the workers. The AIAWJ’s mission includes community edu-
cation on civil and workplace rights, services such as translation or assistance with filing unpaid
wage claims and campaigns both against target employers and policy change.
The next article of this literature review deals specifically with the discrimination and workers
rights in the restaurant industry, as well as recommendations for how organizing can occur effec-
tively in relevant communities. The Restaurant Opportunities Center of Michigan (ROC-MI) pub-
lished a report entitled Behind the Kitchen Door: Inequality and Opportunity in Metro Detroit’s
Growing Restaurant Industry outlining the state of the restaurant industry in the metro Detroit
area. ROC-MI utilized qualitative and quantitative methods of research. Through a combination
of methods, ROC-MI was able to report employment and labor violations, health and safety viola-
tions, as well as challenges in getting to work which effected opportunities for workers in the in-
dustry. It was also found that front-of-the-house workers earn more on average than back-of-
the-house workers. This illustrated to some extent that some employers discriminate in hiring
and promotion.
References: Cameron, C. (2000). Forming More Perfect Union: What Organizing Success Among
Latino Workers in Southern California Means for the Future of the American Labor Movement.
Labor Studies Journal, 25(45), 45-65.; Téllez, M., Sanidad, C., de la Fuente, N. (2011). Immigration
and the state of labor: building amovement in the valley of the sun. Latino Studies, 9, 145-154.;
The Restaurant Opportunities Center of Michigan (2010). Behind the Kitchen Door: Inequality
and Opportunity in Metro Detroit’s Growing Restaurant Industry.
FIELD NOTES
Figure 1: Race Breakdown by Restaurant Job Type
Figure 2: Barriers to Promotions Reported by Restaurant Workers
Both figures are adapted from Behind the Kitchen Door and inform why
the Great Service Divide is a necessary study in Detroit. Figure 1 depicts the
percentage of workers in front-of-the-house and back-of-the-house jobs
broken down by race. This figure clearly depicts that an overwhelming ma-
jority of white workers have work in the FOH. For African-American workers,
the percentages are closer together, but for Latino workers, the percentages
are almost the opposite that of white workers. This data shows an inequality
between the types of workers that are hired to FOH and BOH jobs.
Figure 2 shows the percentage of workers that have been passed over for
a promotion. Of those who have been passed over for a promotion, the
figure also depicts which incidents were resulted from an employers’reaction
to the workers gender or race. The numbers show that a significant portion
of these workers experienced discrimination based on their gender or race.
This data signifies the need to explore further occupational inequality in
the restaurant industry, the purpose of the Great Service Divide study.
The Great Service Divide Study is still in the preliminary stages in Detroit. In
order for results to be statistically significant, there needs to be 60 tests com-
pleted and over the course of the summer, 20 tests were done. We completed
tests at a rate that was slower than what we originally had hoped for, due to a
couple of factors. First, we only had 3 pairs of testers. Testers were found by
asking members of ROC to see if they were interested; 7 of our testers were
ROC members. One tester was found through referral. Another factor was
that since testing is a voluntary position, it didn’t take precedence over other
obligations testers had and as a result, planning for testing was difficult to co-
ordinate. This problem will hopefully be remedied in the coming months, as
we created a Craiglist ad to advertise for new testers. We also created a flyer
to hand out to employees at“high-road restaurants,”or employers who are our
allies. The hiring season presists through mid-August and then starts up again
during the holidays, so we are hoping to finish matched pair testing by the
end of the year. I was unable to present the data we have thus far since the
study is not complete and results have not been made available to the public.
CONCLUSION
As the Great Service Divide study continues in Detroit, a comprehensive report
will be consturcted similar to that of the Behind the Kithchen Door study.
There will be results of all methodology, including matched pair testing and
interviews with workers and employers. At the end of the report, there will be
recommendations made to Detroit city council and other policy makers as to
how to address the results. There will also be recommendations made to em-
ployers on how to work towards high-road practices and decrease discrimina-
tion and segregation in restaurants. We hope that this report will be as influ-
ential as Behind the Kitchen Door bringing restaurant workers rights to light in
the metro Detroit area.