Washington – Tip money earned by waitresses in Las Vegas, manicurists in Hollywood and bartenders in Seattle is on the table in the nation’s capital, as lawmakers scrap over an election-year minimum-wage bill.
Nevada, California and Washington are among seven states where workers get to keep their tips on top of getting paid their state’s full minimum wage. In other states, tip-earners get paid less and make up the difference with tips.
A provision in GOP-written minimum-wage legislation passed by the House and under consideration this week by the Senate could change the law in those seven states – the others are Montana, Alaska, Minnesota and Oregon. It would deal a pay cut of $3 or more an hour to thousands of workers in those states, according to Democrats and labor groups.
“Everything that has been achieved in seven states to support low-wage workers who earn tips is destroyed by this bill,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called it a “travesty.”
Republicans and the National Restaurant Association, which opposes a minimum-wage increase and fought for the tip provision, dispute the Democratic interpretation. They say the legislation is intended to have an impact only when the states in question raise their minimum wage – at which point the increase would come out of a worker’s tips, not an employer’s payroll.
“No provision results in the lowering of wages for any worker. The purpose of the provision is to allow employers with tipped employees to count their employees’ tips as wages for purposes of meeting their minimum-wage obligation,” Brendan Flanagan, a spokesman for the National Restaurant Association, said Tuesday.
