Kitchen worker Carlos Garcia envies the waiters who make more money and suffer fewer aches than those like him in the “back of the house.” The very term, common in restaurants, speaks to a divide that is conspicuous yet often overlooked by diners.
The division of labor plays out in Loop steakhouses and Wrigleyville sports pubs: Taking the order or seating the clients is the girl next door, most likely white, while a cadre of young Mexican men construct the meal behind the scenes.
In a first-of-its-kind survey released this month, a Chicago labor advocacy group detailed the segregation of restaurants and the unequal pay and working conditions that exist between the front and back of the house. It found that nearly 80 percent of whites work in the front, nearly two-thirds of Hispanics in the back.
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