WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown is pushing Congress to support legislation his legislation to raise the federal tipped minimum wage for the first time in two decades from the current $2.13 per hour.
Brown's push coincides with today’s “Tipped Minimum Wage Day of Action” to call attention to the issue.
On Wednesday Brown's office held a conference call with reporters and issued a news release to promote his position. The tipped minimum wage represented 50% of the regular minimum wage, and 60% at its peak in the 1980s, but today represents just 29% of the regular minimum age.
The Fair Minimum Wage Act, which Brown co-sponsors, would increase the tipped minimum wage to 70% of the regular minimum wage, which would be increased to $10.10 per hour from the current $7.25 per hour and be indexed to inflation.
“Every year, millions of Americans living on a tipped wage are working hard and taking responsibility, but are lucky just to get by,” Brown said. “Earning a base of $2.13 an hour, even with tips, isn’t very much -- not when you need to put food on the table, fill your gas tank, send your children to school, and provide a safe place for them to live. Every hard-working American deserves the opportunity to earn a living wage. Passing the Fair Minimum Wage Act and raising the tipped minimum wage is a step in the right direction.”
According to data released by the advocacy group Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, tipped workers have more than twice the poverty rate of the American workforce as a whole; and restaurant servers are nearly twice as likely to depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to feed their families. Just in Ohio, according to the advocacy group, there were 50,000 tipped workers in 2012 earning at or below the state tipped minimum wage of $3.85; and in 2012, there were 201,000 non-tipped workers earning at or below the state tipped minimum wage of $7.70.
Brown said he recently met with five Ohio businesses that support raising the federal minimum wage. They include the Yankee Kitchen, a diner in Boardman he visited last March as part of his campaign to increase the minimum wage; Grounds for Thought, a coffeehouse and bookstore in Bowling Green; Dempsey’s, a restaurant in Columbus; Brothers Printing, a print shop in Cleveland; and Synergistic Systems, a computer consulting company also in greater Cleveland.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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