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In recent years, the political left has been on a crusade to raise the minimum wage. While the federal wage has remained at $7.25 since 2009, twenty-six states have increased their minimum wage in the last three years, with 30 states now sporting a higher minimum than the feds. This progressive push may have reached its apex in the form of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “$30 by ’30 campaign,” which underscores that, when it comes to minimum wage policy, there truly is no ceiling on the left’s aspirations.
But lost in these topline numbers is a related progressive war on tips. Tips and the minimum wage are intertwined due to what’s known as the tipped-wage credit, which is what allows tipped employees to be paid below the minimum wage as long as their tips bridge the gap. This enables the proverbial college-age waiter to make as low as $2.13 an hour on paper but bring home upwards of $40 an hour once tips are factored in.
Continue reading the entire piece here at The American Spectator
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C. Jarrett Dieterle is a legal policy fellow for the Manhattan Institute.