Most cooks, bartenders, and waiters are required to pay to take an online course in food safety in order to work in the restaurant industry. However, there has been recent backlash against this practice because the dominant company that administers the course, known as ServSafe, fundraises for the National Restaurant Association lobbyist group. The National Restaurant Association has strongly fought against minimum wage increases and subminimum wage increases for tipped workers at both the state and national levels. As a result, food service workers and labor activists are extremely frustrated that payments to ServSafe are actively being used to lobby against the interests of the workers.
See "Many US restaurant workers required to take online food safety course inadvertently supporting efforts to prevent minimum wage increases", David A. Fahrenthold and Talmon Joseph Smith, New York Times, January 17, 2023