Voters in Arizona and Massachusetts are set to decide whether employers should be able to continue to pay tipped workers such as servers and bartenders a lower minimum wage than non-tipped workers.

Mel Nichols, a 37-year-old bartender in Phoenix, Arizona, takes home anywhere from $30 to $50 an hour with tips included. But the uncertainty of how much she’s going to make on a daily basis is a constant source of stress.

“For every good day, there’s three bad days,” said Nichols, who has been in the service industry since she was a teenager. “You have no security when it comes to knowing how much you’re going to make.”

The amount tipped workers make varies by state. Fourteen states pay the federal minimum, or just above $2 an hour for tipped workers and $7 an hour for non-tipped workers.

    • FilthyHookerSpit@lemmy.world
      74·
      1 month ago

      That’s wrong. What you should do is never go to restaurants where workers rely on tips. They have to tip out the bartender/busboy/runner at the end of the night and you not tipping means they’re losing money when that happens.

      So maybe don’t be an asshole and abuse an already terrible system.

      • RoliversEnglish
        61·
        1 month ago

        Tipping means facilitating this system.

        • fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc
          6·
          1 month ago

          By not tipping in a place where it’s expected, you’re facilitating the system and ensuring the employee is exploited.

          If you don’t patronise places where tipping is expected, then you’re not facilitating the system.