EPI Research

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  State Impacts of a $15 Tipped Minimum Wage

  November 2022

  Since the Raise the Wage Act of 2021 failed in the U.S. Senate, fights over the minimum wage – especially for tipped restaurant employees – have moved to the states. Anti-tip credit activists have pledged to implement similar provisions at the state level, including eliminating states’ existing tip credit systems in favor of a flat $15 minimum wage. New analysis from Drs. William Even (Miami…
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  Survey of Economists on the Impact of the FAST Recovery Act

  August 2022

  To better understand economists’ views of the potential impacts of adopting California’s Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act (AB 257) on the fast-food restaurant industry, a survey of U.S. economists was conducted in August 2022. Conducted by Dr. Lloyd Corder of CorCom, Inc., Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh, the online survey was sent to a list of 658 economists. The survey was…
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  Employment, Earnings, and Poverty in the Full-Service Restaurant Sector

  August 2022

  The Fair Labor Standards Act outlines the current tipping system in the United States, whereby customer-facing employees earning tips for their service are paid a required minimum base wage ($2.13 per hour at the federal level) in addition to the tips they earn. The gap between this base tipped wage and the regular federal minimum wage for non-tipped employees is called a “tip credit,” which…
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  Not So FAST: Analyzing Labor Law Compliance at California Fast Food Restaurants: Compiled from California Department of Industrial Relations data

  August 2022

  A.B. 257, the “Fast Food Accountability and Standards (FAST) Recovery Act,” would create a new regulatory scheme for California’s fast food restaurant industry (“limited-service restaurant” or LSR, to use Census terminology). This novel arrangement is ostensibly necessary because the limited-service restaurant industry is allegedly more prone to labor law violations than other industries. Yet a statement comparing working conditions in this industry to conditions in…
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  A Survey of US Economists on a $15 Federal Minimum Wage

  April 2022

  Across the nation, lawmakers continue to grapple with the viability and impact of increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour. The debate continues to be heated and some cities have already enacted increases they believe will benefit workers. While the impact of these increases is becoming more clear, recent surveys of businesses, franchises and other groups confirm that such minimum wage raises actually harms…
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  The Case for the Tip Credit: From Workers, Employers, and Research

  February 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 interests and activists. Yet, interest…