The Bureau of Economic Analysis’s latest Economic Report on the U.S. economy includes an analysis of the sources of costs in the Accommodation and Food Services Industry Sub-Sector. The Bureau also calculates how much money is spent by each industry in other industries. The largest industry that purchases services from the Accommodation and Food Services Industry Sub-Sector is professional and business services. While the total number of employment in this sector is large, wage gaps still exist.
Job zones in the accommodation and food services industry
The accommodation and food services industry is a subset of the leisure and hospitality supersector. It includes establishments that provide lodging as well as food and beverage services. Both activities are often combined within the same establishment. The attached map shows the job zones in the Boston area by size. The data is compiled and analyzed by the Boston Research Division. By using the data, the Boston area is identified as a job zone for the accommodation and food services industry.
This industry employs approximately 50,000 people in the Boston area. During the past decade, the sector has enjoyed healthy job growth. Employment in the industry increased by approximately six percent, or about 4,500 jobs, in Boston. By 2010, the sector recovered all of the jobs lost during the recession. This data is based on the latest available annual DWD and BEA data. It does not include construction and demolition jobs.
Education requirements
The Accommodation and Food Services sector is part of the Leisure and Hospitality supersector. It has relatively low educational requirements, requiring more than 95% of jobs to require some college education, compared to only 58% of the overall Metro Boston labor force. Below are the projected occupations in this sector and their education requirements, as well as OJT requirements. Listed below are some of the most common occupations in this sector.
A bachelor’s degree is usually required for a job as a lodging manager, but educational requirements vary by employer. Entry-level positions may only require a high school diploma, while a position with a large hotel chain will probably require a bachelor’s degree. Many colleges offer bachelor’s degree and certificate programs in hospitality and hotel management, which cover computer applications and industry-specific training. Smaller facilities may hire individuals with certificate and associate’s degree credentials.
Wage disparities
The pay gap in the accommodation and food services industry is larger than in many other sectors, but it is getting smaller. Both divisions have shrunk since 2011, and they are now smaller than the average for all sectors in London. The gender pay gap is the difference between the hourly earnings of a man and a woman. It is calculated as 100 – (male hourly pay minus female hourly pay) x 100.
The pay gap between men and women is well documented. The pay gap is even greater in jobs involving tips, such as waiters and bartenders. A recent study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute found that women make less on average than men in eleven different hospitality jobs.
While some of these pay gaps are smaller than those found in other industries, the pay gap for bartenders and supervisors is over $1 per hour.
