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.

  • john89@lemmy.ca
    44·
    28 days ago

    You got a lot of people from the ‘pro-tip’ crowd glad to say “I make more with tips!” whenever someone suggest replacing tips with fair wages.

    If they make more with tips, then they also have to deal with not getting tipped from people like me.

    • fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc
      51·
      28 days ago

      I make more with tips

      This is so naive.

      If tipping just wasn’t a thing at all ever, they would make the same amount. If they’re really that amazing at their jobs someone will pay them well enough to do it.

    • skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
      3·
      27 days ago

      The same group that will vote for pro-rich-person legislations because they think that some day they’ll be rich too.