Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Minimum Wage for Tipped Workers (and a very exciting phone call!)
GUESS WHAT HAPPENED TODAY AT 9B HAMILTON PLACE!
Jaws dropped as MWPC Executive Director Priti Rao raced into the conference room with United States Senator Elizabeth Warren on the phone. Everyone was completely star struck as she wished our fearless leader, Priti Rao, a happy birthday.
While she was on the phone with us, she spoke very passionately about an issue that affects millions of working people, especially working women: tip workers’ minimum wage rates. Tipped workers can range from waiters and bartenders to hairdressers and hotel workers. According to Senator Warren, “It has been twenty years since the United States has increased minimum wage for tip workers,” which has been a meager $2.13 per hour since 1991. Under the proposed legislation, the minimum wage for these individuals would be increased over a period of three years from $2.13 an hour to $7.07.
Here in Massachusetts, women make up 49% of the workforce but make up 73% of tipped workers (http://www.massbudget.org/report_window.php?loc=tipped_minimum_wage.html). This high number shows that women are affected much more than men by inaction in Congress to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers. We applaud Senator Warren’s efforts to improve the quality of living for women here in Massachusetts and across the nation by supporting a higher minimum wage.
For more information on The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, please visit the following link.
http://democrats.edworkforce.house.gov/sites/democrats.edworkforce.house.gov/files/documents/MinWageAct2013OnePagerFORMATTED_0.pdf
