When I was a teenage waitress in New Jersey, my paycheck showed a wage of $2.13/hour due to the two-tiered wage system that allows workers that rely on tips to get paid less. Technically, employers are supposed to make up the difference if the tips do not match that state’s minimum wage, but I’ll tell you now that none of my bosses ever cared or bothered to make up the difference. What makes it even worse is that it’s still $2.13/hr today—and has been since 1991.
The low rate is extremely harmful to tipped workers, who face systemic and chronic underpayment, financial instability, sexual violence, and vulnerability to discrimination. Since the federal government hasn’t done any work to increase that wage, states have taken raising the minimum wage for tipped workers into their own hands. Seven states—California, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Montana, and Minnesota—pay them the full state minimum wage before giving tips. About 20 other states and Washington, D.C. pay more than $2.13 per hour, but less than the minimum wage.
Fortunately, tipped workers in D.C. have a shot at having their wages join the 21st century thanks to Initiative 77, which is on the ballot on June 19. The initiative would get rid of the separate wage rate for tipped workers ($3.33) and slowly raise it to $15, the District’s minimum wage, by 2026.
Whenever there are workers fighting for fair pay and fair working conditions, there are greedy companies using lies and misconceptions to keep wages low while lining their (already fuller) pockets at workers’ expense. The fight over Initiative 77 is no exception, but fortunately Drew Franklin easily called out their BS in one handy and informative Twitter thread.
Funny how Save Our Tips (SOT)—which is against Initiative 77—argues that the restaurants can’t afford to pay their workers $15, but they can afford to pay lawyers a lot more to make sure their workers stay underpaid.
What has some of that money gone to? Well, it looks like it has gone to making things up about paying tipped workers minimum wage. SOT tried to say that paying workers better in New York City killed the restaurant industry—and that wage theft isn’t really a thing. The facts say otherwise.
You can also check the facts for yourself (because a good Twitter burn always has sources).
SOT insists that basically every tipped food service worker makes $20-40 per hour, but then … why are the poverty rates for workers in this industry so high?
Thank goodness for fact-checking by folks like Mr. Franklin. If you want to learn more about why folks in D.C. should ignore the lying lobbyists and vote YES on Initiative 77, visit One Fair Wage DC’s campaign site.