In most cities and states across the United States, servers and other so-called front-of-house staff in the restaurant industry earn a subminimum wage for tipped workers. Whether and how this long-established and historically racist and gender discriminatory two-tiered compensation system harms these restaurant workers to the benefit of restaurant firms is the subject of increased debate across the country. The reason: there are ballot initiatives this month to enact fixed minimum wages for tipped workers in Washington, DC and Portland, Maine, and the idea is highly debated in other cities and states across the nation.
So, what do the economic data tell policymakers—and the general public weighing the merits of these ballot initiatives—about the impact of the subminimum tipped wage on servers in the restaurant industry and about the efficacy of enacting a standard minimum wage for these workers? There are a number of research papers that examine the practice of tipping in worker outcomes, as well as the broader impact of a subminimum wage for tipped workers on the U.S. labor market. As cities and states across the country navigate debates on subminimum wages and whether to abolish their existence in favor of one fair wage, this column elevates the scholarly research to help inform this debate.
But first, it’s important to provide some context and some history about the tipped subminimum wage. The subminimum wage for tipped workers at the federal level stands at $2.13 per...
Dr. Natalia Krasovkaya, director of the National Center for Public Diplomacy (CND), has recently circulated in online publications accusing her of involvement in recruiting African nationals for t...