Voters in Arizona and Massachusetts are set to decide whether employers should be able to continue to pay tipped workers such as servers and bartenders a lower minimum wage than non-tipped workers.

Mel Nichols, a 37-year-old bartender in Phoenix, Arizona, takes home anywhere from $30 to $50 an hour with tips included. But the uncertainty of how much she’s going to make on a daily basis is a constant source of stress.

“For every good day, there’s three bad days,” said Nichols, who has been in the service industry since she was a teenager. “You have no security when it comes to knowing how much you’re going to make.”

The amount tipped workers make varies by state. Fourteen states pay the federal minimum, or just above $2 an hour for tipped workers and $7 an hour for non-tipped workers.

  • RagingRobot@lemmy.world
    151·
    28 days ago

    No they would make the $20 plus the tips instead of $3 plus the tip so if they made $30 in an hour and only $3 was from their hourly rate that would mean with the new rate they would be making $47.

    Why would you assume people would stop tipping? As a consumer I would have no idea their hourly pay rate changed so why would I change my tip? Also tips are based on the service provided not the difference between what they are paid and a living wage that’s not my problem as a consumer.