The legislature’s Labor and Public Employees Committee advanced a proposal Tuesday that would eliminate Connecticut’s tip credit, a long-standing policy allowing restaurants to pay a subminimum wage with the understanding that servers will make up the difference in tips.
The panel approved the bill on an 8-4, partisan vote during its final meeting to pass its own proposals. The legislation removes from state law the subminimum wage often received by servers, bartenders and some hotel staff and requires their employers to pay them at least minimum wage.
In Connecticut, the subminimum wage can be as low as $6.38 while the standard minimum wage currently sits at $14 per hour and will rise to $15 in June.
Democratic proponents of the bill said little during Tuesday’s meeting while several Republican lawmakers articulated concerns that the bill would hurt restaurants and their staff. The change was unnecessary, they said, because state law already requires employers to compensate staff if they are notified that tips failed to put that employee over the minimum wage threshold.
Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott, argued the change and minimum wages in general result in fewer jobs.
“Employers do not pay people $14 or $15 an hour for a job that is worth $10,” Sampson said. “As a result, what you are doing is you’re eliminating that job that used to exist. Effectively, minimum wages create a ban on jobs. A job that pays $10 an hour is now banned in the state of Connecticut.”
However,...
The Dangote Group has dismissed as false and malicious claims of a rift between its President, Aliko Dangote, and the Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Tony Elumelu, and also rejected allegations that h...