Lunch lay is an American slang term for a woman who serves food in a school (or other institutional) cafeteria; the equivalent British English term is "dinner lady". Since the 1960s, lunch ladies have sometimes been caricatured as overweight, uncaring women with hairnets, rubber gloves, glasses and moles. Most lunch ladies are more highly paid than their counterparts in retail food service, because of the rigid federal requirements of food quality, sanitation, and record keeping to which school systems must adhere.