Should the minimum wage be lower for tipped workers? These 2 states will decide

article

FILE- A waitress serves food in a busy restaurant. (Photo: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Voters in Arizona and Massachusetts will decide whether companies should be able to continue to pay tipped workers, such as waiters and bartenders, a lower minimum wage than non-tipped employees.

What’s on the ballot in Arizona?

Arizona voters are determining whether to approve a measure backed by state Republicans and the Arizona Restaurant Association called Proposition 138, also known as Downed Workers Protection Actthat would amend Arizona’s constitution by adding a stipulation regulating the pay of tipped workers, FOX 10 Phoenix reported.

RELATED: Arizona Ballot Proposals: A Look at Other November Ballot Measures | 2024 elections

If approved by voters, an employer may pay up to 25% per hour below the minimum wage for employees who receive tips or gratuities. FOX 10 Phoenix notes that the employer will have to establish that the employee in question is paid at least minimum wage plus $2 per hour for all hours worked.

Proposition 138 was first proposed in response to a ballot measure promoted by One Fair Wage, a nonprofit working to end subminimum wages, that would create a single $18 minimum wage, but the group abandoned the effort following threats of litigation from the restaurant association over how it collected signatures.

Arizona Republican State Senator J.D. Mesnard, the sponsor of Proposition 138, told the AP that the measure is a win for both businesses and lower-wage workers.

Additionally, One Fair Wage is trying to pass a pay raise in the Legislature. Arizona Democratic state Rep. Mariana Sandoval told the AP she hopes her party in November can flip the Legislature, where Republicans hold a one-seat majority in both chambers.

Arizona employers can pay their tipped workers $3 less per hour than other workers. Under current rates, that means the base pay for tipped workers is $11.35 per hour, the Associated Press reported. Currently, the minimum hourly wage in Arizona is $14.35 and increases annually with inflation.

What’s on the ballot in Massachusetts?

In Massachusetts, voters will decide on a measure to increase wages for state workers – currently $6.75 per hour – until it reaches the regular minimum wage by January 2029. This measure was proposed by One Fair Wage.

According to the AP, if voters approve the measure, Massachusetts would join seven states that have a single minimum wage. Michigan will soon join that group after an August state Supreme Court ruling began the phase-out of the subminimum wage.

Are other states considering wage voting measures?

In California, voters will choose whether to increase the hourly minimum wage from $16 to $18 by 2026, in what would be the highest state minimum wage in the country.

And Alaska and Missouri have measures that would gradually raise minimum wages to $15 an hour while requiring paid sick leave.

In the last two years, Washington, D.C. and Chicago have also begun eliminating the subminimum wage.

The amount tipped workers receive varies by state, with the AP reporting that 14 states pay the federal minimum, or just over $2 per hour for tipped workers and $7 per hour for tipped workers. They don’t receive tips.