Sexual harassment prevalent among tipped workers in Boston
When Marie Billiel was a food server, sexual harassment was part of the job. She was locked in the walk-in cooler with male co-workers, whistled at, and touched and kissed against her will, she said. She endured comments about her body and persistent requests for dates.
Such behavior is widespread in the Greater Boston restaurant industry, according to a new report by the Restaurant Opportunities Center United, occurring at a much higher rate than in any of the 11 other major cities studied by the New York-based worker advocacy group. One in three tipped workers surveyed in Boston — servers, bartenders, bussers, and food runners — said they have been sexually harassed at work, compared with no more than one in five in New York, Los Angeles, and other cities.
Tipped workers, nearly 70 percent of whom are women in the Boston area, are particularly vulnerable to sexual harassment because they depend on gratuities for the majority of their income, according to Restaurant Opportunities, which surveyed 500 workers at fast food, casual, and fine dining establishments in and around Boston.
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