NEW YORK -- Two major restaurant chains are being pressured by employees to increase their minimum wage, since state law does not require it.
Workers rallied in Midtown on Thursday demanding tipped employees receive a $15 wage, CBS2's Natalie Duddridge reported.
"Food, beverage, hospitality hotels that you stay in, we deserve to be paid," restaurant worker Jennifer Yoon said.
"You can't live off tips. You need an actual paycheck," Applebee's employee Arielle Tess Edwards said.
READ MORE: New York, New Jersey Join 19 Other States In Raising Minimum Wage In 2022
City Comptroller Brad Lander threw his support behind workers demonstrating outside a hotel where Applebee's and IHOP executives were meeting to vote on whether the subminimum wage should be changed.
Edwards proposed the fair wage resolution.
"Urging them to change their policies in their restaurants so that we earn minimum wage, plus our tips on top," she said.
Restaurant staff in New York City are the last service workers to still make $10 an hour. State law allows employers to make up the $5 difference with what's called a "cash wage," essentially assuming they'll earn the rest in tips.
"They think we're getting that 20 percent tip and we're not. A lot of the times people don't tip 20 percent. They tip 5 percent, which is not feasible," Edwards said.
FLASHBACK: Sen. Chuck Schumer Calls On Congress To Raise Minimum Wage
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