Multimedia Around the Institute

On March 7th, The Aspen Institute’s Workforce Strategies Initiative hosted a conversation titled, "From Fast Food to Fine Dining: A Discussion on Work in the Restaurant Industry." This is the first conversation in a roundtable series titled "Reinventing Low-Wage Work: Ideas That Can Work for Employees, Employers and the Economy.” Low-wage jobs are a large and growing part of the U.S. economy—for example, today the restaurant industry employs approximately 1 in 12 American workers and that proportion is expected to increase. AspenWSI’s series brings a conversation about the nature of low-wage work, the challenges it presents to workers, businesses and the economy, and the opportunities we have for addressing these challenges to the Aspen Institute at a time when jobs and the economy are such critical topics for our country.