Illinois State Rep. Camille Lilly (78th) has introduced a bill that would phase out the tipped minimum wage between 2023 and 2025. The measure would ensure that tipped workers receive a base wage that’s more than the regular minimum wage.
House Bill 5139 is part of a nation-wide push headed by the One Fair Wage service worker advocacy coalition to raise minimum wages for tipped employees in at least 25 states and Washington D.C. by 2026. In most states, the minimum wage for workers that get tips is lower than the minimum wage based on the assumption that the tips would make up the difference. The coalition argues that, in practice, this arrangement leaves service workers with barely enough money to live on and forces them to put up with harassment.
During the Feb. 14 virtual press conference, which was held over Zoom, activists and legislators that support the imitative framed the wage increase as a way to reverse the “Great Resignation,” noting that the service workers are less financially secure than ever while facing higher risk of COVID-19 exposure and a power imbalance inherent in asking them to enforce mask and proof of vaccination against the very customers they depend on for tips.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, seven states and two territories – most notably California and Alaska – don’t have a tipped minimum wage. Sixteen states, including Indiana, use the federal tipped minimum wage of $2.13. The rest set their own regular and tipped minimum wages.
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