Despite record tourist arrivals and a generally well educated and experienced workforce, South Florida’s hospitality workers earn far less than average in the region.
The findings come from research carried out by Florida International University which shows hospitality employees in the West Palm Beach-Fort Lauderdale-Miami area earned $24,752 in 2013 – much lower than an average of $43,000, across all industries.
The FIU report said restaurant and food service jobs are the lowest of all at $19,188.
Though it is a very important industry for our economy, hospitality workers are one of the worst paid," said report author Ali Bustamante.
Bustamante accepted that many workers in the sector receive overtime pay, commissions or tips which was not included in the research but still believes a high proportion of tourism workers are undervalued.
"Often businesses say workers tend to be younger and unskilled but in the data we see a different picture – these are middle-aged people with families who have been in the labor force for quite a while," Bustamante said.
The report said the average age of a hospitality worker is 37 years old.
Over half have some form of college education and almost 47% have one or more children to support, the study found.
