Before the pandemic, food and drinking establishments were an important part of the business fabric in communities across the country, and these businesses employed over 12 million people. But as food businesses lost customers during the crisis, millions of restaurant workers lost work. Food and drinking establishments have been an important source of employment for women and people of color, who are over-represented in the industry’s lower paid occupations.

In this conversation we talk about ideas for business practices, public policies, and partnerships, including an innovative public/private effort that’s addressing the interests that workers, small business owners, and communities all share in a thriving restaurant sector.

Lack of access to quality jobs is a key contributor to rising inequality. Race, gender, and place all play a critical role in who has access to quality work and economic mobility. How can leaders across fields take concrete steps to assess and address disparities in job quality in a regional labor market and improve outcomes for all workers? This event explores the following questions: Why prioritize and measure job quality in your work? What data sources, tools, and approaches can you put to work immediately to assess job quality in your local labor market? How can you disaggregate data by race, gender, and place, and analyze disparities in job quality in a region?

This report identifies 12 evidence-based practices companies can use to help break down barriers women face in the workplace while simultaneously creating a competitive business advantage. This resource has applications for employers and the practitioners who work with them to create and implement policies that support a workplace that is gender inclusive.

This toolkit provides leaders in the restaurant industry with practical resources for assessing, planning, and implementing steps to embed racial equity in workplace practices. Through partnerships with two restaurants, the toolkit highlights skills and tools critical to supporting restaurants on their racial equity journey and provides tangible examples to support implementation. This toolkit can help employers and their partners identify where racial bias may be operating in a restaurant’s policies and practices and implement solutions.