"This is an attempt by lobbyists to transfer a massive amount of wealth and power from consumers and workers to corporate restaurant chains and their private equity owners." (Photo: Joelogon/Flickr)
Tips Are for Servers, Not CEOs
The Trump administration wants servers to hand over nearly $6 billion to their bosses.
When we give someone a tip, we expect the money will go to the workers who provided us with service.
We might leave a little extra because someone went above and beyond for us. Or because we want that person to have a slightly easier time getting by.
Whatever the circumstance, we trust that the money will help the workers who served us.
But the National Restaurant Association -- a group controlled by owners of major restaurant chains --has long been promoting the idea that business owners, not workers, should control the tips we leave.
If they have their way, the Department of Labor will soon let minimum wage employers confiscate all tips left by customers. Business owners would not have to disclose to patrons what happens to tips, and could simply pocket the tips themselves.
This would apply to anyone who receives tips -- from the housekeeper who makes up your hotel room, to the valet who parks your car, to the assistant who pushes your wheelchair at the airport.
Overall, women represent two out of three tipped workers.
The NRA's key leadership includes Olive Garden, IHOP and Applebee's, Denny's, Cracker Barrel, Chili's, and Outback Steakhouse. These companies already have an egregious track record of squeezing workers while inflating CEO pay. If the new rule is finalized, they could use tips to fuel even more stock buybacks and CEO pay hikes.
By doing these companies' bidding, the Trump administration is poised to make life even harder for restaurant workers and their families. A recent study shows that more than half of hourly earnings for servers and bartenders come from tips.
Restaurant lobbyists claim that giving employers control over tips would let them redistribute tips from servers to non-tipped workers like dishwashers. But there's nothing in the rule to require this. And even if they do redistribute, there's a good chance employers would cut base wages to make up the difference.
With the rule change, employers would have a strong incentive to pay only the federal minimum of $7.25 and then claim ownership of all tips. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that changing the rule would transfer $5.8 billion from workers directly to employers, and 80 percent of that amount would come from the pockets of women who earn tips.
To be clear, this rule will hurt workers -- and the Labor Department knows it. Revelations that senior political officials there tried to bury a damaging economic analysis of the proposal have led to an internal investigation.
Even with tips, servers and bartenders take home only $10.11 per hour. This is already far below what workers throughout the country need to make ends meet. These employees need more wage protections, not fewer.
And voters seem to agree.
Recent polling from the National Employment Law Project shows 83 percent of voters disapprove of the proposal to give employers control of worker tips, and most respondents say they would tip less often if the rules are changed.
This is an attempt by lobbyists to transfer a massive amount of wealth and power from consumers and workers to corporate restaurant chains and their private equity owners.
That's backwards: Tips are for servers, not CEOs.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
When we give someone a tip, we expect the money will go to the workers who provided us with service.
We might leave a little extra because someone went above and beyond for us. Or because we want that person to have a slightly easier time getting by.
Whatever the circumstance, we trust that the money will help the workers who served us.
But the National Restaurant Association -- a group controlled by owners of major restaurant chains --has long been promoting the idea that business owners, not workers, should control the tips we leave.
If they have their way, the Department of Labor will soon let minimum wage employers confiscate all tips left by customers. Business owners would not have to disclose to patrons what happens to tips, and could simply pocket the tips themselves.
This would apply to anyone who receives tips -- from the housekeeper who makes up your hotel room, to the valet who parks your car, to the assistant who pushes your wheelchair at the airport.
Overall, women represent two out of three tipped workers.
The NRA's key leadership includes Olive Garden, IHOP and Applebee's, Denny's, Cracker Barrel, Chili's, and Outback Steakhouse. These companies already have an egregious track record of squeezing workers while inflating CEO pay. If the new rule is finalized, they could use tips to fuel even more stock buybacks and CEO pay hikes.
By doing these companies' bidding, the Trump administration is poised to make life even harder for restaurant workers and their families. A recent study shows that more than half of hourly earnings for servers and bartenders come from tips.
Restaurant lobbyists claim that giving employers control over tips would let them redistribute tips from servers to non-tipped workers like dishwashers. But there's nothing in the rule to require this. And even if they do redistribute, there's a good chance employers would cut base wages to make up the difference.
With the rule change, employers would have a strong incentive to pay only the federal minimum of $7.25 and then claim ownership of all tips. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that changing the rule would transfer $5.8 billion from workers directly to employers, and 80 percent of that amount would come from the pockets of women who earn tips.
To be clear, this rule will hurt workers -- and the Labor Department knows it. Revelations that senior political officials there tried to bury a damaging economic analysis of the proposal have led to an internal investigation.
Even with tips, servers and bartenders take home only $10.11 per hour. This is already far below what workers throughout the country need to make ends meet. These employees need more wage protections, not fewer.
And voters seem to agree.
Recent polling from the National Employment Law Project shows 83 percent of voters disapprove of the proposal to give employers control of worker tips, and most respondents say they would tip less often if the rules are changed.
This is an attempt by lobbyists to transfer a massive amount of wealth and power from consumers and workers to corporate restaurant chains and their private equity owners.
That's backwards: Tips are for servers, not CEOs.
When we give someone a tip, we expect the money will go to the workers who provided us with service.
We might leave a little extra because someone went above and beyond for us. Or because we want that person to have a slightly easier time getting by.
Whatever the circumstance, we trust that the money will help the workers who served us.
But the National Restaurant Association -- a group controlled by owners of major restaurant chains --has long been promoting the idea that business owners, not workers, should control the tips we leave.
If they have their way, the Department of Labor will soon let minimum wage employers confiscate all tips left by customers. Business owners would not have to disclose to patrons what happens to tips, and could simply pocket the tips themselves.
This would apply to anyone who receives tips -- from the housekeeper who makes up your hotel room, to the valet who parks your car, to the assistant who pushes your wheelchair at the airport.
Overall, women represent two out of three tipped workers.
The NRA's key leadership includes Olive Garden, IHOP and Applebee's, Denny's, Cracker Barrel, Chili's, and Outback Steakhouse. These companies already have an egregious track record of squeezing workers while inflating CEO pay. If the new rule is finalized, they could use tips to fuel even more stock buybacks and CEO pay hikes.
By doing these companies' bidding, the Trump administration is poised to make life even harder for restaurant workers and their families. A recent study shows that more than half of hourly earnings for servers and bartenders come from tips.
Restaurant lobbyists claim that giving employers control over tips would let them redistribute tips from servers to non-tipped workers like dishwashers. But there's nothing in the rule to require this. And even if they do redistribute, there's a good chance employers would cut base wages to make up the difference.
With the rule change, employers would have a strong incentive to pay only the federal minimum of $7.25 and then claim ownership of all tips. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that changing the rule would transfer $5.8 billion from workers directly to employers, and 80 percent of that amount would come from the pockets of women who earn tips.
To be clear, this rule will hurt workers -- and the Labor Department knows it. Revelations that senior political officials there tried to bury a damaging economic analysis of the proposal have led to an internal investigation.
Even with tips, servers and bartenders take home only $10.11 per hour. This is already far below what workers throughout the country need to make ends meet. These employees need more wage protections, not fewer.
And voters seem to agree.
Recent polling from the National Employment Law Project shows 83 percent of voters disapprove of the proposal to give employers control of worker tips, and most respondents say they would tip less often if the rules are changed.
This is an attempt by lobbyists to transfer a massive amount of wealth and power from consumers and workers to corporate restaurant chains and their private equity owners.
That's backwards: Tips are for servers, not CEOs.