U.S. Rep. Nannette Barragan takes a customer’s order at Los Tres Cochinitos in Wilmington Aug. 21 as a show of support for the living wage movement.
Courtesy photo
Wave Staff Report
WILMINGTON — U.S. Rep. Nanette Barragan, D-Carson, put on an apron and waited tables at a restaurant here Aug. 21, demonstrating solidarity with tipped restaurant workers.
Barragán worked a one-hour shift at Los Tres Cochinitos to shine a spotlight on the need for real solutions to the affordability crisis and underscore the growing movement for living wages in Los Angeles.
According to the group One Fair Wage, a single worker in Los Angeles without children must earn nearly $28 an hour to cover rent, transportation and food. Yet the current minimum wage in the city is just $17.28 an hour, far below what it takes to survive in Southern California.
Local workers, unions and community leaders are calling for wages that reflect the true cost of living and keep pace with skyrocketing costs. As hotel and airport workers have secured a pathway to a $30 an hour wage by 2028, a growing movement across Los Angeles is pushing elected leaders to take action so working families are not priced out of the communities they serve.
Workers are facing a triple threat from the Trump administration, according to a statement issued by One Fair Wage. Cuts to Medicaid and SNAP have stripped away critical benefits restaurant workers depend on at twice the rate of other industries while the rising costs of goods and services are being driven higher by Trump’s tariffs and privatization of basic needs. In addition, immigration raids are making many service jobs unsafe and unstable.
One Fair Wage called President Donald Trump’s “no tax on tips” proposal “a temporary and superficial fix that expires in 2028 and leaves out nearly two thirds of tipped workers who earn too little to file income taxes.
While waiting tables, Aug. 21 Barragán, whose district includes San Pedro, Carson, Compton, Watts and parts of Long Beach, talked with customers about higher wages and strong worker protections for restaurant workers.
Barragán has been a consistent champion for raising wages through her support of the Raise the Wage Act and the Tipped Income Protection and Support Act, while also backing statewide efforts to raise the minimum wage.
She called on other elected leaders to prioritize the cost of living crisis by delivering on higher wages and standing with workers in the fight for dignity and economic security.
