House bill would establish a minimum wage for tipped employees
The Working for Adequate Gains for Employment in Services “WAGES” Act (H.R. 2570), legislation introduced in the House on May 21, would establish a base, adjustable minimum wage for tipped employees, adjusted incrementally. The legislation would “roll back an ill-advised policy that has resulted in 18 years of frozen wages for tipped employees,” according to Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md), who introduced the measure.
“While the minimum wage for most workers was increased in 2007, tipped employees were left at rates that have not been increased since 1991,” Edwards noted in a press release announcing introduction of the bill. “In fact, in 1996 Congress took the unprecedented step to freeze the wages of tipped employees. As a result, by July 2009, the wages for tipped workers will be less than half what they would have been had Congress not taken this action.”
The WAGES Act would amend Section 3(m)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to provide that tipped employees are to be paid no less than $3.75 an hour, effective 90 dates from the bill’s enactment, and at least $5.00 an hour beginning July 1, 2011. As of July 1, 2012, the minimum wage for a tipped employee will be no less than 70 percent of the standard minimum wage in effect under Section 6(a)(1), “but in no case less than $5.50 an hour.” After that time, the tipped employee minimum wage is to be adjusted as necessary.
The legislation would require the Secretary of Labor to publish a notice of a wage adjustment, in the Federal Register and on the agency’s website, at least 10 days before any such increase is to take effect.
“Tipped workers, who struggle every day and contribute tremendously to this economy, have been left behind for too long,” said Edwards. “This bill takes the steps necessary to restore fairness to our minimum wage and ensure that tipped employees are not subjected to additional years of frozen wages.”
Restaurant workers, including waiters, waitresses, bussers, and other servers, are the largest group of tipped workers, Edwards said, and they have been hit hard by the erosion of their minimum wage. Nearly 15 percent of all waiters and waitresses live below the federal poverty level, while only 5.7 percent of the workforce as a whole falls beneath this threshold, she noted.
“With current poverty rates for tipped employees at three times the national average for all other workers, it is time that Congress addressed this injustice,” said Christine L. Owens, executive director of The National Employment Law Project, an employee advocacy group, commending the legislation.
The WAGES Act has 20 sponsors. The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.
Reprinted with permission. © CCH
(Submitted June 2, 2009)
<p>House bill would establish a minimum wage for tipped employees  The Working for Adequate Gains for Employment in Services “WAGES” Act (H.R. 2570), legislation introduced in the House on May 21, would establish a base, adjustable minimum wage for tipped</p>