Greetings—


New research from Urban Institute experts, in the form of a
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fact sheet and a
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brief , evaluates school food service job quality against other entry-level jobs and the wages necessary for these workers to afford housing in California. Among the findings are the following:
- Nearly all (94 percent) of surveyed city and suburban school districts and about half (55 percent) of town and rural school districts had one or more school-based jobs that paid below the hourly wage needed to afford a local, one-bedroom dwelling. Therefore, most districts have cafeteria workers likely to be rent burdened.
- On average, the lowest-paying occupation of cashier earns $14.29 per hour lower than needed and the highest-paying occupation of driver earns $8.64 below the wage needed to afford local, basic housing in city or suburban districts.
- Workers in rural and town districts earn less overall but were closer to being able to afford local, basic housing due to increased housing affordability in those districts. The lowest paying occupation of cashier pays $2.35 per hour below what is needed to afford local, basic housing and some occupations in those districts paid above the basic housing wage.
- Because of part-time and part-year schedules, hourly wages of some occupations may substantially overestimate what level of housing the worker can afford. On average, workers earn $49,000 per year less than needed to afford a one-bedroom dwelling in city or suburban districts.
- When measured across nine job quality metrics, the school food occupations of assistant or general helper, cashier, and dishwasher each have job quality scores below other low-paying, low-quality, entry-level occupations in food service, health care, and child care industries.
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Read the full brief for details on the job quality differences between school food service and other entry-level work, school-based versus district-based compensation, and recommendations to boost worker retention and recruitment. For a 2-page synopsis of the findings and firsthand accounts,
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review the fact sheet .


Please share the brief or the fact sheet with anyone in your network who may find this research useful. If you have any questions or would like to speak with the researchers, please reply to this email directly and we can connect you.


Thanks,


- The Stakeholder Outreach team

U R B A N I N S T I T U T E

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Urban Institute is a nonprofit research organization that believes in the power of evidence to improve people’s lives. Urban as an organization does not take policy positions but Urban’s independent experts are empowered to make recommendations based on their research.


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