It has already happened in seven states. Now, it could happen in Massachusetts as well: the passage of a standard minimum wage for all workers, including tipped workers, especially those in the food service industry.
Sen. Patricia Jehlen (D-Somerville) has been championing a bill that would increase the wages paid to food service workers to the state’s current $14.25-an-hour, on par with all other workers in the state, eliminating the differential due to the country’s tipping economy.
Currently, service workers in the restaurant industry are paid $6.15 an hour, and employers claim the shortfall is made up through tips.
“I feel hopeful today,” Jehlen said at a rally on the State House steps Wednesday, June 15. The bill she has been championing through several sessions of the state legislature was viewed favorably by the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development that she chairs and is now being vetted by the House Ways and Means Committee.
Proponents are confident the bill could become law before the year’s end.
She noted that the entire labor force is in transition; the restaurant industry is in transition; and what better time, she asked, is there to make these changes?
“People are finding they have a right to be paid for their labor,” Jehlen said, recognizing that many employees are forming unions; that unionization (along with good legislation and optimism) are the key to economic equity and justice. She said that the economy is...
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