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February 27, 2024

Labor advocates, restaurants at odds over minimum wage for tipped workers

HBJ Photo | Skyler Frazer State Sen. Julie Kushner (D-Danbury) speaks during a press conference at the Connecticut Legislative Office Building.
By Skyler Frazer

A proposal to eliminate the lower minimum wage for hourly employees who earn tips has pro-labor advocacy groups at odds with business owners.

Democrats on the Labor and Public Employees Committee introduced Senate Bill 221 earlier this month, a proposal that would eliminate the lower minimum wage assigned to hourly employees who earn tips — establishing instead a single minimum wage that would apply to all workers.
    
Connecticut’s minimums for tipped workers remain where they’ve been since 2017: $6.38 for wait staff and $8.23 for bartenders. Tips are expected to bring those wages up to at least the full minimum wage, and in cases where they don’t, employers are required by law to pay the difference — known as a tip credit.

Connecticut’s regular minimum wage is $15.69 per hour. 

The bill would phase out the tipped minimum wage by 2027. 

State Sen. Julie Kushner (D-Danbury) and state Rep. Manny Sanchez (D-New Britain), co-chairs of the labor committee, held a press conference Tuesday morning with groups that support phasing out the tipped minimum wage. 

Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage (OFW), argued that restaurants in other states that have only one minimum wage -- including  California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Montana, Alaska and Minnesota --  haven’t been negatively impacted. 

“Small business restaurants in California have grown … at more than twice the rate of restaurants in Connecticut over the last three years,” Jayaraman said.

In a recent OFW survey, 54% of restaurant workers said they are considering leaving their line of work, with 78% saying the only thing that would make them stay or return to working in restaurants is a “full livable wage with tips on top.”

Ed Hawthorne, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, called the one fair wage proposal “simply the right thing to do.”

But the Connecticut Restaurant Association released a survey Tuesday morning that said 96% of local servers, bartenders and other tipped employees are in favor of Connecticut’s current tip credit system.

The online survey had 446 responses from restaurant workers, according to the CRA.

Ninety-five percent of respondents said they think they’ll earn less income if the proposed bill were to pass because it could encourage people to tip less or not at all. Meanwhile, 91% of respondents said they already earn more than $20 per hour, with 61% earning more than $30 per hour.

"This survey paints a clear picture: Connecticut's tipping system works, and local servers don't want to see it changed," Connecticut Restaurant Association President Scott Dolch said in a statement. "People from all walks of life choose to work in restaurants for their flexible hours, competitive pay, and opportunity for career advancement. These are aspects of our local economy that should be supported, not undone.”

A public hearing on S.B. 221 is scheduled for the Labor and Public Employees Committee for Tuesday morning.

A CT Mirror report was used in this story.

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