We can’t do it without you. Join and help us ensure that the voices of essential restaurant workers are heard.

This fight is our fight.

Living wages. Better working conditions. Racial and gender equity. Safe, fair and healthy workplace.

We are UNITED.

Founded after Sept. 11, 2001, as a worker relief center for affected restaurant workers and their families, ROC United has grown into a national organization, activating more than 500,000 restaurant workers, employers, allies, and consumers across the country.


As a multiracial, multicultural workplace justice organization, we believe that working people should be provided with livable wages and workplaces that are fair, safe, inclusive and accessible, and where they receive living wages, pathways for advancement, and benefits for themselves and their families.


We believe that the organized collective voice and collective action of workers is essential for change and power within our democracy. Worker-driven and worker-led, our work focuses on responses and solutions to workplace injustice and economic inequality.

0 states

have a federal tipped minimum wage of $2.13.

State of Restaurant Workers 2020 - United States

  • Hourly prevailing wage: $12.82
  • Number of workers: 13,494,590
  • Female: 53.70%
  • Male: 46.30%
  • White: 52.80%
  • Black: 12.50%
  • Latinx: 25.10%
  • Asian & Pacific Islander: 6.20%
  • American Indian: 0.60%
  • Other: 2.80%

A SNAPSHOT OF STATE OF THE RESTAURANT WORKERS

· There are nearly 14 million restaurant workers in the U.S.
· Women comprise a majority of the industry
· The median wage for a restaurant worker in the U.S. is $11.65 per hour
· Servers are overwhelmingly women
· Latinx workers are the most represented racial/ethnic group in the restaurant industry
· Over 1/5 of restaurant workers are immigrants
· More than half of the mothers in the restaurant industry are single mothers
· Restaurant workers are more than twice as likely to be in poverty than the general workforce

IN THE FRONT AND
BACK OF THE HOUSE

Looking for a local chapter?​

2020 State of the Restaurant Workers Report

COVID-19 Health and Safety Tips for Restaurant Workers

FEATURED VIDEOS

To mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Windows on the World survivors will share their reflections on what they experienced then and what it means to them today in the time of pandemic.

Join ROC Minnesota and restaurant workers as they meet with the press and tell their stories and work experiences with their former employer, the Bartmann Group.

Join ROC United, workers, and partners as we reveal the 2020 State of the Restaurant Workers report.

Hear from restaurant workers, leaders from Black churches and other interfaith groups, elected officials, and community allies on why we need to raise the federal minimum wage.

Watch ROC United, in partnership with the Seattle Office for Civil Rights, pay tribute to Seattle-based ‘high road’ restaurant owners.

From our very beginnings, improving the nation’s service industries has been the bedrock of ROC’s enduring commitment.

Stacey Abrams joined Restaurant Opportunities Centers United for “Safe and Just Return for Workers,” a digital rally about returning to work after the COVID-19 pandemic lock down. Her message: organize, advocate, and agitate.

Sen. Cory Booker joined us for the celebration of our 19th anniversary.

Organizing Spotlight:

paid leave policy for all

A national paid leave policy is long overdue in the United States. We now have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to pass a national paid family and medical leave policy that would lift up all American workers and families. 

Initiative Spotlight:

ROC MI VOTE

ROC MI Vote 2020 and our statewide social justice, interfaith and labor allies are committed to educating, engaging and activating the Black, Brown and Indigenous Voters of Michigan.

Photo by Zack Whaley

PRESS UPDATES