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.

  • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
    52·
    1 month ago

    A higher minimum wage for restaurant staff is going straight onto the menu prices anyway. But then customers weary of expensive restaurant food stop showing up.

    Restaurants are pretty much the toughest industry to be in. The vast majority of them fail. And the ones that really succeed (fast food) don’t have tipping anyway.

    The ones who are making all the money are the landlords who own the land the restaurants lease from. They don’t care if 7 tenants restaurants go out of business in 5 years. They can always find more.

      • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
        11·
        1 month ago

        The prices are going up now because all of the following are getting more expensive:

        • ingredients
        • energy
        • rent
        • delivery fees (for delivery of ingredients to the restaurant)
        • laundry
        • maintenance

        Raising the wages of staff is another expense to add on. To the list.

        Restaurants are not a lucrative business. Most barely break even or lose money. They can’t afford to pay staff more without raising prices.

        • kent_eh@lemmy.caEnglish
          3·
          1 month ago

          If you can’t figure out how to run your business without abusively underpaying your staff, maybe you shouldn’t be in that business.

          • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
            21·
            1 month ago

            That really doesn’t need to be said. Countless restaurants go out of business every day! The staff still end up having to find new jobs all the time.