Ending the tipped minimum wage (with Saru Jayaraman)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 January 2022

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In most states, tipped workers are not subject to the minimum wage. Why? Because it’s legal to pay tipped workers a subminimum wage as low as the federal minimum of $2.13 per hour. As long as any worker in the country can be paid less than the minimum wage, the minimum wage is meaningless. Saru Jayaraman, a leader in the national fight for one fair wage, lays out the path forward. Saru Jayaraman is the President of One Fair Wage, an organization that fights to raise wages and working conditions for all tipped and service workers She is also the Director of the UC Berkeley Food Labor Research Center and the author of One Fair Wage: Ending Subminimum Pay in America. Twitter: @SaruJayaraman New Year to bring higher minimum wages in record number of states and cities: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/higher-minimum-wages-2022-in-record-number-of-states/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiospm&stream=top Arkansas waitress fired after $4,400 tip shows why tipping at restaurants has to stop: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/arkansas-waitress-fired-after-4-400-tip-shows-why-tipping-ncna1286076 When the minimum wage isn’t enough: https://commonwealthmagazine.org/economy/when-the-minimum-wage-isnt-enough/ Seven facts about tipped workers and the tipped minimum wage: https://www.epi.org/blog/seven-facts-about-tipped-workers-and-the-tipped-minimum-wage/ Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com/ Twitter: @PitchforkEcon Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Nick’s twitter: @NickHanauer

Transcript

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0:00.0	We allow businesses in most states to pay tip workers a tiny fraction of what the actual
0:09.2	minimum wage is.
0:10.6	It is an abomination that in 2022 the United States of America has a federal minimum wage
0:17.0	of $2.13 for the nation's largest and fastest growing industry and that in four out of five
0:23.2	states that wage is under $5 an hour.
0:26.2	It's really a giant scale.
0:33.0	From the home offices of civic ventures in downtown Seattle, this is pitchfork economics
0:37.9	with Nick Hanauer, the best place to get the truth about who gets what and why.
0:49.2	I'm Nick Hanauer, founder of Civic Ventures.
0:52.4	I'm David Goldstein, senior fellow at Civic Ventures.
1:00.8	So Nick, it's a new year and that means that there's a number of minimum wage increases
1:06.7	taking effect across the country.
1:08.8	In fact, in 35 cities and counties and 21 states, minimum wage rose on January 1st, many
1:15.9	hitting or surpassing $15 an hour.
1:20.0	I bet you didn't see that coming seven, eight years ago.
1:24.2	No, I did not.
1:25.2	No, we've come far and yet we continue to fight over this incredibly stupid thing, which
1:34.7	is that we allow businesses in most places, I think in most states, to pay tip workers
1:43.2	a tiny fraction of what the actual minimum wage is.
1:48.1	That policy pivots off the federal policy, which requires businesses to pay tip workers
1:55.2	only $2.13 an hour plus tips.
2:00.4	It's an abomination, it's an idiotic policy and definitely something that should be eliminated.
	...

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