One of the leaders of the legislature’s Labor and Public Employees Committee plans to bring back legislation requiring restaurant staff and other tipped workers be paid minimum wage, regardless of tips.
Sen. Julie Kushner, backed by advocates from Connecticut and Chicago, said the bill would treat tipped workers the same as all other employees, especially with the minimum wage set to automatically increase each year.
“When we raised the minimum successfully over the last five years, we found that we left some people behind,” said Kushner, a Democrat from Danbury who co-chairs the General Assembly’s Labor Committee.
Kushner said she hasn’t drafted a bill yet for the upcoming session, which starts in February, but she would once again try to remove the state’s “tip credit provision.”
That law allows restaurants and hotels to pay tipped workers less than the state’s minimum wage – $8.23 per hour for bartendenders and $6.38 per hour for other employees.
Employers are required to cover the difference when wages and tips combined still fall short of the minimum wage, which will rise from $15 to $15.69 on Jan. 1.
Labor advocates said the proposal would treat hospitality workers fairly.
“It’s well past time we give tipped workers in the state of Connecticut a raise,” Connecticut AFL-CIO President Ed Hawthorne said, adding it’s been 2,529 days since the “sub-minimum wage” was increased.
The Connecticut Restaurant Association, which opposed the bill last year, said eliminating the tip credit would increase costs significantly for restaurants.
“If passed, this legislation would completely change how servers in Connecticut are paid, putting at risk a system that currently benefits thousands of servers, small business restaurant owners, and Connecticut’s local economy,” association President and CEO Scott Dolch said in a statement. “It would both increase costs to local small business owners while also disincentivizing tipping by customers, which hurts servers.”
He also pointed to testimony from Keith Beaulieu, owner of the Main Pub in Manchester, who told the legislature last year that the change would raise his payroll cost by $135,821 a year.
He also said the bill isn’t needed because his wait staff make an average of $29 per hour after tips, while bartenders earn an average of $31.
Rep. Tim Ackert, R-Coventry, also raised concerns that eliminating the tip credit would result in higher costs for restaurants, which would ultimately get passed to customers.
Advocates said that’s not always the case, though, as workers in other restaurants and hotels earn less than the minimum wage, even after tips.
State and federal law requires employers to make up the difference, but advocates said many employees are afraid of retribution if they speak up.
A U.S. Department of Labor study of 9,000 restaurants nationwide found that 83.8% violated wage and hour laws.
Mary Laura Briceño, a worker at Los Remolinos in Norwalk, said workers in the industry often face sexual and verbal harassment. She also said she’s seen employers tell coworkers they’re expendable.
“We’re mothers, we’re immigrants, we’re youth, and we’re here today to push for the one fair wage law,” she said through an interpreter.
Last year’s bill cleared the Labor Committee but never came up for a vote in the Senate or House. Kushner and One Fair Wage, a nationwide advocacy group, brought in advocates from Chicago, where the city council approved a similar proposal in October.
Chicago’s ordinance eliminates the credit over five years, part of a process that won over the city’s restaurants.
“We met in the middle, we landed in agreement and we passed a piece of legislation that was going to work for workers, small businesses, and the hospitality industry,” Chicago Alderman Jessie Fuentes said.
Chicago was the second city to pass a local requirement, joining Washington, D.C.
So far seven states have also passed requirements, while One Fair Wage is pushing to get a statewide referendum in Massachusetts next year.
But Ackert said he wants to see the Labor Committee get support from the Connecticut Restaurant Association, just as the Chicago City Council did.
“If it’s good for the workers in the state of Connecticut and the restaurant can be a valuable component to that, support those jobs, then yeah, I’d be on board with it,” he said.
