Have you ever wondered who makes your food when you go out to eat at that good Mexican restaurant?
I’ve been working at restaurants since I was 16 years old. Over the past 3 years, I’ve seen so many cooks, busboys, waiters, and dishwashers come and go. Why? Because they, or we, aren’t getting paid what we deserve. Abuse isn’t found only in farms or warehouses, it found in places like the “Authentic Mexican Restaurant” down the street from your house.
Being stuck inside of four walls is just as bad as working in the sweltering summer sun or frigid winter wind. You’re away from your family from 9 in the morning until the time the place closes, sometimes past midnight on the weekends. Not having the choice to quit is even worse. You can’t find a better job because of your immigration status. No other place will hire you without papers. You get tired, you get irritated, you get stressed, and to get paid what? Minimum wage or even less. Restaurant owners or managers sometimes don’t even pay the waiters who then depend solely on their tips. Sometimes a certain percent is taken out of your tips every night to “help pay the busboys.” Imagine not getting paid and still getting money taken away. Doesn’t that have exploitation written all over it?
Dishwashers are the ones who do so much for so less. I remember a time we were so low on staff that my manager brought in a child to work with us. He claimed to be 18, but growing up with two brothers made it so easy to see he was not much older than 12 or 13. It was really sad seeing him walking to work in the cold morning and not having any way to get home during break. He would fall asleep on top of chip buckets from being so exhausted. He was on his feet for hours straight, carrying heavy piles of plates or pans to get paid no more than $250 a week. He was so young. How in the world was he expected speak up about this abuse?
Even though restaurant workers don’t speak out about this treatment, there’s no denying that this kind of labor abuse exists all over the country. The workers are taken advantage of because the bosses know immigrants have no other way of making a living here. It’s sad that within our race, high income individuals take advantage of those with a low economic status and documentation issues.
As a young college student, working in an environment like this is stressful. Most days we wish for better job opportunities, but immigrants without papers don’t have those type of opportunities. They don’t have a voice to speak out about their mistreatment or to defend their wages. They’re secluded within those walls, clinging to some kind of hope that we’ll get out some day.
By Daniela Sanchez
Unity in Diversity 