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Every time a server shuttles a lunch order to a table, or a mover humps heavy, yet fragile, boxes onto a U-Haul, or a hairdresser gives a customer a blowout, they put that day\u2019s pay at the mercy of a stranger\u2019s generosity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They\u2019re hoping they\u2019ll be rewarded with a hefty tip.<\/p>\n
For service workers, tips aren\u2019t just a supplement to their income, but their main livelihood\u2014a fact that\u2019s become salient over the past few weeks when both presidential candidates, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, proposed<\/a> to eliminate<\/a> taxes on tips.\u00a0<\/p>\n Economists were lukewarm on the idea, but unsurprisingly tipped workers and the owners of businesses that employ them loved<\/a> it. No taxes on tips means higher take-home pay, but would only be a stopgap solution<\/a> to a much more intractable and pernicious problem: raising the minimum wage.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a key piece of this,\u201d said Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, which endorsed Harris\u2019 plan and represents 60,000 hotel and restaurant workers in Nevada. \u201cIt\u2019s like two sides to the same coin.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s why the union has thrown its support behind Harris\u2019 proposal, he added. \u201cYou\u2019re not hearing Trump or any Republicans talk about [raising the minimum wage], and they probably won\u2019t, but it\u2019s a big piece of the picture.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Harris\u2019 campaign said she aims to do both. \u201cVice President Harris would push for the proposal alongside an increase in the minimum wage,\u201d they said. The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n There are valid questions to ask about the basic fairness of forcing certain workers to rely on customers\u2019 whims to earn a living, said Pappageorge. But people struggling financially don\u2019t have the luxury of contemplating the social dynamics and moral implications of American tipping culture, he said\u2014they\u2019re focused on making ends meet. For now, an imperfect, albeit immediate, solution is their best bet.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe when I\u2019m dead and gone something will change,\u201d Pappageorge says. \u201cBut working class families can\u2019t wait for aspirational ideas and thoughts of what may happen 20 years in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Pappageorge\u2019s words <\/strong>lay bare a harsh reality: the lowest-paid workers in the U.S. already earn too little to make a living. Those at the very lowest income levels likely won\u2019t even benefit from a tax break because they already earn so little they barely pay taxes on their income, according to Bernard Yaros, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics.\u00a0<\/p>\n The federal minimum remains stuck at $7.25, the same level where it was 15 years ago<\/a> in 2009. For tipped workers there\u2019s a subminimum wage that\u2019s\u00a0 a paltry $2.13. With the current cost of living crisis the federal minimum wage has the lowest purchasing power<\/a> since the 1950s1949.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a minimum wage, not a livable wage,\u201d said David Viana, a chef who owns four restaurants in New Jersey and supports exempting tips from taxes.\u00a0<\/p>\n The debate over the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers dates back to the 19th century, with Southern employers moving to \u201chire\u201d formerly enslaved workers for customer tips, to avoid paying them a living wage. But it was a 1996 law that set the stage for today\u2019s clash. That year, Congress fixed the tipped wage at a flat $2.13, rather than a percentage of the minimum wage. Since then, the wage hasn\u2019t changed, falling to just 29% of the federal minimum today.<\/p>\n Several Democrat-led bills to scrap the sub-minimum wage have stalled in Congress, but seven states and dozens of cities have eliminated differential pay for tipped workers<\/a>, and a half-dozen states currently have bills or ballot proposals to do the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n