Tipped Wage

  • Bid to end tip credit puts jobs at risk

    November 2023 ·  Rebekah Paxton ·  Boston Herald

    In the eleventh hour, Massachusetts lawmakers are considering bills to eliminate the state’s tip credit and add on a minimum wage increase up to $20 per hour. Such an unprecedented move will worsen economic hurdles facing restaurants and threaten the livelihoods of thousands of employees. As part of a so-called “grand bargain” signed by Governor Charlie Baker in 2018, Massachusetts has already seen a hike in the…
  • Blue Dog Democrats Run Away From $15 Wage Fight

    July 2019 ·  Michael Saltsman ·  Morning Consult

    House ”Blue Dog” Democrats position themselves as a voice of reason, promising “commonsense” alternatives to the party’s more progressive members. But if Blue Dogs cave in and support a $15 federal minimum wage that will eliminate up to 3.7 million jobs, it suggests the coalition’s promise is more rhetoric than reality. After Democrats re-took control of the House in 2018, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) said a $15 minimum wage was…
  • How Many Jobs Would the $15 Minimum Wage Kill?

    July 2019 ·  Michael Saltsman ·  Wall Street Journal

    This is one political promise it’s OK to break. Democrats pledged a $15-an-hour minimum wage while campaigning in 2018, and all but three of the party’s 2020 presidential candidates endorse the increase. But a new report from the Congressional Budget Office finds the policy could leave nearly four million workers without a job. This week’s analysis is an update of CBO’s 2014 analysis of a $10.10 minimum wage, which…
  • As minimum wage kept growing, restaurants didn’t

    January 2019 ·  Michael Saltsman ·  Crain's New York Business

    Has New York’s minimum wage experiment been a success or failure? For Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the verdict is all positive. He described the state’s minimum wage—which in New York City rose to $15 an hour Dec. 31—as a “national example in the fight for economic justice.” But employment figures paint a less-rosy picture. New York has more than a dozen different minimum wage rates depending on a…
  • Tip for Murphy: Leave NJ’s tipped wage alone

    November 2018 ·  Michael Saltsman & Samantha Summers ·  The Burlington County Times

    New Jersey Democrats have rightly proceeded with caution on a $15 minimum wage, citing concerns about negative impacts on young adults and the agricultural industry. But these consequences would pale in comparison to the negative impact on restaurants should the state Legislature embrace Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter’s proposal to upend the state’s tipping system. Sumter’s proposal, which was praised by Gov. Phil Murphy, would raise by more than…
  • No matter how much Cuomo gives The Left, he can’t win their love

    September 2018 ·  Michael Saltsman ·  The New York Post

    Gov. Andrew Cuomo went into his gubernatorial primary against Cynthia Nixon on Thursday with statewide polls giving him a nearly 40-point advantage. Yet Cuomo’s nervous habit of desperately trying to appease his left flank continued right through the primary — and shows no sign of slowing down as the governor mulls a presidential run. But Cuomo shouldn’t let the election pass without learning a lesson about his fair-weather…