Kshama Sawant on the problem with tip credit towards $15 minimum wage
Apr 28, 2014, 12:49 PM | Updated: 12:59 pm
(AP Photo/File)
After an announcement by Seattle Mayor Ed Murray about the plan to raise minimum wage to $15, an announcement about how there was no plan, councilmember Kshama Sawant said the Income Inequality Committee had failed.
The principles agreed to by the committee included raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour – but there were sticking points, including the length of a phase-in and whether tips, benefits and other forms of compensation should be taken into account.
Sawant, a day after the mayor made his non-annoucement, joined KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz to talk about some of the problems with the committee’s discussions, including tip credit.
According to Sawant, a tip credit goes against the logic of all the data that’s out there, where tipped workers are likely to be poorer than workers overall, and they’re more likely to be victims of wage theft overall.
Listen to the entire conversation between Rantz and Sawant: