The hospitality industry represents one of the world's fastest-growing, job-creating professions, employing one in ten people worldwide. In the US alone, the industry employs over 8.8 million people, and it is estimated that the industry will require more than 1.6 million new workers over the next decade if it is to keep pace with current demand. There are currently too few students taking college and university courses in hospitality to sustain this demand, and too many experienced professionals at all levels of the industry are leaving it to pursue other careers.

For the millions of individuals who are employed in the hospitality industry throughout the world, providing the highest quality service to customers is only possible when their job reflects fairness in the three essential areas of their employment: compensation, opportunity, and support.

Hospitality industry employers emphasizing the quality of the service that they provide to customers must make the critical connection between service quality, and the quality of the job for the person who provides that service. Particularly for women, and those who self-identify as being part of an ethnic or cultural minority, the hospitality industry recognizes that it can do better in supporting all its employees both in the workplace, and in their hospitality industry careers.

A growing network of organizations — including those directly involved in the hospitality industry as well as those supporting it — have adopted a set of principles that define the essential elements of a high-quality hospitality industry job.