ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Several tipped workers gathered in front of the State House rallying for support of a bill that would pay them a guaranteed salary plus whatever tips they receive.
Currently, tipped workers in Maryland can be paid as low as $3.63 an hour.
“That’s been a source of poverty and sexual harassment and inequality for a workforce that’s overwhelmingly women," said Saru Jayaraman the president of One Fair Wage.
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Some restaurant workers don’t want to see this done, saying it will encourage people to not tip on their bill, limiting them to the hourly wage.
“We work really hard for the money we make and if we get our tips taken away we’re making less money, almost half the amount of money that we do for the same amount of work and it’s just not fair," said Elena James, a server for 20 years.
James says she makes between $25 and $30 an hour.
More than double the current minimum wage.
Michael Gbadamoshi, another member of Save Our Tips, says he’s paid off his student loans working in restaurants but would possibly leave the industry if this happened.
“Why would I be doing the same work I’ve been doing when I could be doing something else, making the same money or even more doing something different or easier," said Gbadamoshi, a server for six years.
For Tara McKinney, the top end money is something she could live without, if she had some stability.
“People get $4 an hour, Montgomery County that’s kinda the going rate and then we rely on tips so this money would literally help people sleep at night," said McKinney.
One Fair Wage says the seven other states who’ve passed this law haven’t seen tip averages go down.
D.C. passed a law to make the minimum wage for tipped employees nearly $17 an hour.
Though typically reported, tip averages don’t reflect the full amount servers take home since many don’t declare cash tips.
