Madison, WI – Today, during a floor session of the Wisconsin Assembly, Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-19) proposed an amendment to AB 38 – unamended, AB 38 would continue allowing employers to pay tipped employees $2.33/hr. Rep. Clancy’s amendment would abolish this outdated sub-minimum wage pay rate and allow tipped workers to earn the federal minimum wage, currently $7.25/hr. This directly addresses the ongoing problem of employers forcing workers to rely on tips from customers instead of compensating them for their labor with competitive wages and benefits.
Rep. Clancy’s proposed amendment failed to pass.
Rep. Ryan Clancy released the following statement:
“Restaurant workers, hotel cleaners, bartenders, and too many other Wisconsin workers still rely on the inconsistent generosity of their customers just to survive. This is a terrible system that primarily benefits bosses and corporations – it’s also rife for abuse, leading to frequent unethical and sometimes illegal behavior like forced pooling of tips, assigning of non-tipped work assignments to tipped employees, and outright tip theft by bosses and managers.
Republicans’ goal here is to set workers against each other in yet another capitalist race to the bottom. Real wages continue to stagnate under Trump’s anti-worker, anti-immigrant economic plan. Millions of workers stand to lose health insurance if Congress fails to restore Affordable Care Act marketplace subsidies soon. In that climate, deepening workers’ reliance on tips from customers would be a disaster. Only fair wages, benefits and working conditions will provide real stability for our communities.
This amendment would raise the standard of living for essential workers across Wisconsin – the same workers folks in the majority pretended to support and respect at the height of the pandemic. As a longtime business owner, I know the status quo is a choice – we can choose to compensate every worker fairly instead, and this evens the playing field to let employers do just that. I’m proud to introduce this legislation today, and am equally disappointed at Speaker Robin Vos and his Republican colleagues’ continued embrace of the unfair status quo.”
