For Tipped Workers, A Different Minimum Wage Battle
The federal minimum wage for tipped workers has been $2.13 since 1991. That pay rate tends to get lost in the larger debate over whether to raise national minimum wage for non-tipped workers, which is $7.25 an hour.
In theory, the money from tips should make up the difference in pay — and then some. But according to a White House report, tipped workers are more than twice as likely as other workers to experience poverty.
Living On Tips
Under federal law, if tips don't bring employees up to the level of the standard minimum wage, employers are required to make up the difference.
But Saru Jayaraman, founder of the labor advocacy group Restaurant Opportunity Centers United, tells NPR's Arun Rath that it often doesn't work out that way.
“ "It's very abusive ... When you actually take a person who is making so little and tell them 'you know what, you sink or swim on your own.'