Plates were clinking and shoulders were bumping at a packed lunch hour Thursday at Fat Cats, as ribeye sandwiches and white pizzas hit tables across the restaurant. "Your iced tea, ma'am," one of the servers, clad in a white dress shirt and black slacks, said to a patron holding her baby.
That server was Mayor Bibb, who waited tables for an hour to usher in a $50,000 grant program led by One Fair Wage, a restaurant activism coalition based in Los Angeles. The grant announcement—which Bibb said he'd match, to City Hall's surprise—came parallel with One Fair Wage's nationwide tour advocating for a minimum wage increase on next year's ballot.
The coalition's argument, that tipped workers are the most glossed over in the country, suggests that a simple increase for servers, say to the $15 ideal, would repair cracks in the industry the pandemic only widened.
"If you recall, my mother worked for Red Lobster," Bibb said, standing behind the bar. "And I remember her complaining that some days she wouldn't get tipped enough. And that hurt me when she told me that, as a Black woman in this city."
"It's past time," Bibb added, after announcing his matching $50,000, "we stopped putting profits over people in this city."
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