New Report - Serving While Sick: High Risks and Low Benefits for the Nation's Restaurant Workforce, and Their Impact on the Consumer

The Restaurant Opportunities Center United just released a new report, Serving While Sick, which draws from the analysis of over 4,000 surveys of restaurant workers nationwide. Throughout the country restaurant workers reported very high rates of injury and illness and very low rates of benefits to cope with any such illness or injury.

The survey found that 87.7 percent of restaurant workers reported not receiving any paid sick time and more than 63 percent reported cooking and serving food while sick. Some workers reported working while sick because they could not afford to take a day off while others feared losing their job if they did not show up for work. Workers in one state reported that coming to the restaurant sick had consequences beyond themselves as 19.9 percent reported causing other workers to becomes sick and 12 percent reported that they coughed or sneezed into food they were preparing or serving.

With the work that restaurant workers do in preparing and serving food to the general public, the lack of paid sick days and the high percentage of workers working while sick is not only a personal but a public health concern.

To read the report please click here.