Women's Work: How a Lack of Benefits and Protections are Failing NC's Service Workers
Sarah Burgess
Master's Thesis Project April 2023
This project is a compilation of stories that examine women in North Carolina’s service industry lack of access to safeguards against sexual violence, affordable health insurance and maternity leave. These are protections that are offered to workers in different fields and different states, but are particularly challenging for female service workers in this state. There are over 500,000 workers in hospitality in North Carolina, with over 50 percent of bartenders identifying as female, over 70 percent of servers identifying as female and over 80 percent of hosts identifying as female.
My own experience working as a server and bartender the past 4 years in North Carolina led me to these stories and informed my writing. The women I’ve worked with and met during my time in the service industry inspired these stories. These key issues are highlighted through characters and narrative woven together with policies, or lack thereof, to illustrate the access issues that female service workers across the state face.
Restaurant workers are banding together to demand safer conditions and an end to, but North Carolina’s anti-union laws create limitations.
Most service jobs in North Carolina do not provide health insurance, which has taken a higher toll on women.
Without legal guarantee of paid leave, new moms are left to find workplaces that might offer some flexibility.
Polishing wine glasses is the last bit of work I have to do at the end of every night. As tedious as it is, it’s a task I find relaxing and a time to reflect on the shift. There have been many times in this moment I’ve considered my own struggle as a service worker.
Last summer I was getting kicked off my dad’s health insurance and was terrified about how to access my necessary prescriptions. I’ve watched coworkers get sexually harassed by superiors and not have outlets to report it, and had staff members be inappropriate to me and not know what to do. I’ve sat in conversations where friends blatantly told me they don’t tip their bartenders well because they think they get paid the difference by their employers. I worked through a pandemic where the safety of workers was risked daily. I’ve grown to never want to fully part with my job but detest the unfair practices that I experience in it.
Here’s to the women who pour me a drink on my days off, serve me at my favorite restaurant and take my order at the late night drive-thru. Hopefully these stories shed just a little light on the plight of service workers in North Carolina.