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New Research (See All)

  • The Case for the Tip Credit: From Workers, Employers, and Research

    February 10, 2021

    The tipping system provides substantial earning opportunities for workers across many industries, especially restaurant servers and bartenders – well beyond the current minimum wage, and even beyond the proposed $15 minimum wage. Saving the tip credit is a worker-organized, bipartisan issue. Thousands of tipped workers across the country have pushed to save the tip credit, against the infringement of outside…

  • Tipped Workers, Minimum Wage Workers, and Poverty: Analyzing the Redistributive Impact of Eliminating Tip Credits

    February 10, 2021

    Key takeaway: According to a new study by economists from the University of California, Irvine, tipped workers are significantly less likely to be poor than are standard minimum wage earners. Tipped workers, many of whom are in the food and beverage service industry, have lower statutory minimum wages than other workers (under federal and most state laws). However, the lower…

  • The National Impact of a $15 Minimum Wage: Over 2 Million Jobs Lost

    January 26, 2021

    President Biden and recent legislation have proposed more than doubling the federal minimum wage to $15, and raising the separate federal tipped minimum wage by as much as 600 percent. Rather than providing relief from the pandemic, the best economic evidence shows this proposal would worsen its consequences. This analysis is based on a 2019 methodology developed by the nonpartisan…

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Blog Updates (See All)

    Data Shows Share of Black and Hispanic Restaurant Workers Earning Tips is Growing

    May 6, 2021•MinimumWage.com

    In the fight to save state and federal tip credits, restaurant workers have rallied to support the traditional tipping system, saying their tips allow them to earn far beyond the regular minimum hourly wage. Analysis of Census Bureau data shows the average server in 2020 made $15.51 per hour, and many restaurant servers and bartenders…

    Full-Page Ad Thanks West Virginia Senators for Standing with Tipped Workers

    April 30, 2021•MinimumWage.com

    Today, the Employment Policies Institute (EPI) placed a full-page ad in the Dominion Post and Charleston Gazette Mail thanking West Virginia Senators Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin for standing with West Virginia tipped workers and opposing legislation that would eliminate the federal tip credit. Senator Joe Manchin, a key senate vote, was crucial in these conversations. The ad…

    Dems Get it Wrong on Linking Minimum Wage to Productivity Gains

    April 23, 2021•MinimumWage.com

    Advocates maintain various rationales for raising the minimum wage to extraordinarily high levels – yet none are rooted in historical or economic precedent. One such argument seems to be that the federal minimum wage should correlate with gains in labor productivity. This idea is so pervasive that various members of Congress have adopted it as…

    New Data: On Average, Tipped Workers Report Earning More than $15-Per-Hour

    April 15, 2021•MinimumWage.com

    Since the “Fight for $15” has begun its push to end the tip credit, tipped restaurant workers like servers and bartenders have pushed back – rejecting the well-documented consequence of reduced tips and income. New data confirms tipped workers on average already make more than $15 per hour, and have seen annual pay increases as…

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