Economic Policy Institute reposted this
Tipping and the subminimum wage for service workers are practices that are #RootedinRacism and hail from the exploitation of formerly enslaved Black workers following emancipation. After emancipation, formerly enslaved Black workers were often relegated to service jobs. Instead of paying Black workers any wage at all, employers suggested that guests offer Black workers a small tip for their services. Thus, the racist practice of tipping was born. US labor law has allowed this practice to continue. Although the federal minimum wage is $7.25, the "subminimum wage" for tipped workers is only $2.13. In many states and most of the South, employers rely on customers to make up the other $5.12 the worker is owed. The legalization of the subminimum wage created a two-tiered system that continues today as a means of racial and economic control. Though this separate and unequal treatment of tipped workers is rooted in anti-Black racism, today it harms workers of color more broadly. The tipped workforce in the US is nearly 2/3 women, and disproportionately composed of women of color. Tipped workers earn low wages, experience high rates of poverty, and are vulnerable to exploitation in the workplace—particularly in the form of wage theft & sexual harassment. To address the discriminatory treatment of tipped workers across the country, lawmakers must eliminate the tipped subminimum wage and give tipped workers the same basic protection afforded to other workers in almost all other jobs—a minimum hourly wage, regardless of tips. https://lnkd.in/eCjj7yfh