The following article by Casey Quinlan was posted on the ThinkProgress website January 18, 2018:
The Department of Labor’s justification doesn’t hold water, an economist says.
In December, the Department of Labor proposed a rule that would rescind portions of tip regulations, allowing employers who pay the minimum wage to take workers’ tips. According to Economic Policy Institute research, tipped workers would lose $5.8 billion a year in tips as a result of this rule. Women in tipped jobs would lose $4.6 billion annually.
Current regulations prohibit employers from taking tips. The department justifies the proposed rule by saying it is partly about fairness to “back of the house” workers, such as dishwashers and cooks, who don’t typically receive tips. The rule would theoretically allow employers to give some of the tips to back-of-the house workers. On the surface, the rule seems to address the great racial divide in high-end restaurant restaurants, in which white non-Latinx people tend to work in higher paying-positions as waiters and bartenders, and Latinx people tend to work in lower-paying jobs, such as line cooks and other back-of-house positions. The median hourly wage for restaurant waiters and waitresses is $9.61 and dishwashers’ median wage is $10, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Continue reading “Trump administration’s proposed labor rule would rob tipped workers of $5.8 billion per year”