Celebrities act like waiters and call for raising minimum wage

Celebrities, they’re just like us!

Well, not really. But for at least one evening a year, stars don aprons and act as servers for an hour to bring attention to the subminimum wage for tipped workers, and the need for a truly liveable wage for workers across the board. 

The event is hosted by model and television personality Chrissy Teigen and Saru Jayaraman, the president of the group One Fair Wage. This year, it was held in New York City for the first time and also served as the launch event for the Make America Affordable Now PAC. The committee is the electoral arm of the Living Wage for All coalition and will support candidates across the county who are running on increasing the minimum wage to help address the affordability crisis.

Prior to the start of the star-studded event – which also featured Orlando Bloom, Gayle King and elected officials like Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado and New York City Comptroller Brad Lander – City & State sat down with Teigen and Jayaraman to discuss celebrity involvement, the push for an increased wage and the success of candidates like Zohran Mamdani running on an affordability message. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How did you get involved with One Fair Wage?

Teigen: I actually met Saru four years ago. She came over to my house in Los Angeles, and was so passionate and so inspiring. And I actually was (either) pregnant (or) I was trying to get pregnant, maybe, and my little Estee is like a fierce three-year-old now. Obviously, a lot of things have changed in the few years since we've known each other, but we put on this event. It’s our third year. The first two years were in Los Angeles at really incredible restaurants. They were, just for me, the greatest nights – we could say of work – of my life, because we were doing something really impactful and amazing. But also it really is such an inspiring, fun event. It's just so cool to me also to see the amount of people that are really excited to be there for this cause as well, and the people that show up. And if I can in any way help and get them to show up with Saru and to have this night and to draw attention to it, and having people like you write about it is just exactly what we need. 

Why move it to New York this year? Is it the political climate that we’re seeing right now?

Jayaraman: It's kind of undeniable that New York has really set the entire national conversation around affordability front and center. But I do have to say, doing it here is very meaningful to us because our work began after 9/11, together with workers from Windows on the World, which was the restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center. Fekkak Mamdouh, my co-founder, was a server at Windows on the World the day that the towers fell. He's here tonight. Next year is the 25th anniversary of 9/11. And since that time, 25 years, we've been fighting for restaurant workers to get a living wage in the name of the 73 workers who died that morning on 9/11. So it’s very important to be here in New York because of the affordability conversation, but it's also very meaningful to us, because this is where we started it all. If we can get New York electeds who are going to be in the room to really drive home ending the subminimum wage for tipped workers and raising the wage for everybody, that will make this work together just like, the most impactful thing ever.

Why is it important for celebrities like yourself to do these kinds of events and bring attention to the issue?

Teigen: I think one of the greatest things that we have to offer – maybe one of the only things publicly – is a platform. There's so many people here that make incredible movies and have incredible bodies of work, but I don't believe that much of that matters if you don't actually use your platform to amplify causes like this. I'm just happy, as an ex-server myself, that Saru connected with me to be able to do this, because in our first year, we didn't know that this would be a thing that we'd get to continue doing. We did not know the impact that it would have. 

I think being able to support people that we know so well, and that we've seen ourselves reflected in, that are working hard every single day – day in, day out, on holidays. You might be celebrating a special occasion, and it might be Christmas or New Year's, but there are people there that are there to serve you and be there for you. People kind of forget to humanize them a bit. They have a life outside of it, and they'd like to be able to take care of their family and afford beautiful things for them, just like anybody else. 

We want to make sure that they are given a dignified wage. I have a lot of politically forward friends that know a lot about politics. We follow the news, we do what we can. But I think the fact that I do share with them that there is a minimum wage of $2.13, people are pretty blown away by that. And I've always been shocked that people that I knew that were very smart and very politically active and forward, didn't know about this. So by having people here, like Orlando Bloom and my favorite Bravo celebrities and Gayle King – obviously, press love celebrities. So if we're able to draw attention by having a bunch of celebrities try their darndest to serve for an hour, then we're good.

In terms of what we’re seeing here in New York City, how are you feeling about the mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani and his push for a $30 minimum wage?

Jayaraman: We, just today, are releasing really incredible polling showing that 72% of New Yorkers support a $30 minimum wage and 66% of voters in the biggest cities across the United States – New York, Chicago, LA, San Francisco – support a $30 minimum wage. Even in the congressional swing districts like Arizona and Michigan and Pennsylvania, 55% of voters support at least a $25 federal minimum wage. So we are just seeing incredible momentum. 

It is Zohran, and it is more than Zohran. It is people, it is working people. It is restaurant workers saying enough is enough. We need to be heard if we want to save democracy. We need politicians to deliver a living wage for us so that we can afford to live, and that includes tipped workers who, like Chrissy said, get this absurd wage of $2.13 an hour. Here's something that's been pretty horrible. Last year, we repeatedly asked the Democratic (presidential) campaign, please elevate raising wages and ending the subminimum wage for tipped workers. They did not, and then Donald Trump came along and said, no tax on tips. That is not the right solution. Two-thirds of tipped workers don't even earn enough to pay federal income tax, but they felt seen and heard by a man who was just pandering to them. So politicians in the room today have to deliver for these workers if we don't want them to be co-opted by the right. That is what this New York race is all about, is delivering for people who are fed up with the system.

How has your past experience working in the service industry shaped your views and approach to this work?

Teigen: I just have an incredible amount of respect for anybody in the service industry. I always have. I'm still that person that goes to a restaurant and wants to be the best patron that they've ever seen. I'm very hyper-protective of servers. I remember it so well. I was telling Saru, even when we do these nights, I am just soaking wet in the armpits. I am nervous. You really feel that stress again, to get everything right and to make sure everything's perfect for everybody. And I've always been that person when I was a server, even now in whatever industry I am in, I like everything to be perfect, and I like everybody to have the perfect experience. I know that so many servers want that for other people too, but I also know what it's like to work with the general public, and it can be really, really difficult. You're dealing with really difficult people, and you're doing it with a smile on your face and and mostly because you're working (for) those tips, and you're trying to get enough to take home to your family. So I think the reason why I love doing this event so much is because I see so much of myself in them and so much of my beginnings in them.