AOC Mixes Drinks in Queens in Show of Support for Restaurant Workers

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's critics on social media often tell the freshman Congresswoman — and former restaurant worker — to go back to bartending. And so she did early Friday evening, at Queensboro Restaurant in Jackson Heights — the same venue where former Congressman Joe Crowley learned of his defeat by the insurgent 28 year-old candidate last June.

Ocasio-Cortez served pizzas and poured drinks for around twenty minutes to a crowd of several dozen invited activists and supporters before drawing attention to federal legislation she's co-sponsoring that would raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 over the next six years.

"The federal tipped minimum wage is $2.13 an hour. That is unacceptable," Ocasio-Cortez said. "Any job that pays $2.13 an hour is not a job, it's indentured servitude."

New York State's tipped wage is much higher than the federal level — between $7.50 to $10 per hour depending on a business's size and location in the state. But activists at the Queens event said Governor Andrew Cuomo should commit to bumping the base wage for tipped workers so it would match the $15 per hour that other workers in New York earn.

"When you pay a woman a full wage she doesn't have to put up with anything and everything from the customers [in order] to feed her family. She gets a pay check from her boss like every other worker in every other industry," said Saru Jayaraman, president of the Restaurant Opportunities Center United.

An analysis from the Independent Budget Office from May noted a drop in about 5,900 restaurant jobs in New York City last year, which critics have tied to city and state policies that have grown worker wages and added paid sick leave. 

But Ocasio-Cortez said working in a job so reliant on tips repeatedly subjects female servers to harassment.

"We need to be paid a stable enough wage to reject sexual harassment," Ocasio-Cortez said.

Cook Zulma Lowery is a chef for a Lower Manhattan synagogue who organized her colleagues and successfully pressure management into paying a higher base rate, and said conditions have improved dramatically for her team since. Lowery said having a figure of national consequence like Ocasio-Cortez lending her name to their cause means a lot.

"More people will listen. More people's ears will open up more. More hearts will open up," Lowery said. "I think it's a great thing."

Most people at the AOC event were invited guests, but regular Queensboro Restaurant patron Alex Amidon said the owners tipped her and a friend off and they were able to sneak in through the back.

"I'm proud of her. I'm proud of where she came from. I'm proud she represents us. I'm proud that she's making old white men a little upset. Keep going, keep going, we need more of you. We need more young women coming in," Amidon said. "We need more little girls looking up and saying, 'AOC is a superhero.'"