PROVIDENCE — Restaurant owners, lobbyists and policy organizations came out for the annual fight over minimum wage in Rhode Island on Wednesday night at the legislature.
Who was missing? The workers themselves.
At issue were three types of minimum wage bills: the elimination of Rhode Island's tipped minimum wage ($3.89); the increase of the minimum wage beyond the $15 an hour it is set to hit in 2025, which passed in 2021; and the ability of cities and towns to set a minimum wage within their borders.
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Under the current law, workers who receive tips can be paid less than the minimum wage, known as a tipped minimum wage, which is currently $3.89 and hasn't been raised since 2017. If a worker doesn't receive enough in tips to bring their total hourly rate up to the state's minimum wage, their employer is supposed to make up the difference.
Economic Progress Institute's Alan Krinsky testified for both sets of policies and said in the eight states that eliminated the tipped minimum wage, poverty rates are lower for tipped workers and the number of restaurants has grown.
"Some will tell you, if you phase it out it will cause the sky to fall, but it's happened elsewhere and the sky hasn't fallen," he said.
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