Saru Jayaraman

Saru Jayaraman (born April 3, 1975) is an American attorney, author, and activist from Los Angeles, California. She is known for her advocacy on fair wages for restaurant workers and service workers in the United States. In response to the September 11 attacks, she co-founded Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, a non-profit public service organization. In 2013, she established a new organization called One Fair Wage to address these issues further. Jayaraman has received the Ashoka fellowship in 2013 and the Soros Equality Fellowship in 2020. Raised in Whittier, California, she experienced racial discrimination from a young age. Jayaraman's parents emigrated from India, and her father faced unemployment during her teenage years.