Some advocates are pushing lawmakers to ensure tipped workers in New York State recieve at least the statewide minimum wage before tips are factored in.

Legislation currently working its way through the committee process is co-sponsored by state Sen. Robert Jackson and Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas. González-Rojas told Spectrum News 1 that now is the time to make a change.

“We cannot leave our service industry workers behind any longer, especially after having increased the statewide minimum wage last year,” she said. “The tip credit has generated greater inequities in food service work and gratuities are not enough for struggling New Yorkers dealing with the incredibly high cost of living and the rising cost of food.”

Opponents, meanwhile, say the minimum for tipped workers has kept pace with the overall minimum wage, and a change that could do more harm than good isn’t necessary.

Among the organizations rallying for the change is One Fair Wage. They have pushed several states to make the transition, and several already have.

OFW President Saru Jayaraman said with restaurants in need of more workers, the industry is at a crossroads.

“We need this to bring workers back to the industry,” she said.

She said it was a transition following a strike by workers in the 1850s that brought tipping to the U.S. in the first place, as restaurants looked for cheaper labor.

“After Emancipation, they found it in Black workers moving up from the south, and started hiring Black women and not paying them, telling them you’re going to live exclusively on this new thing that has just come from Europe called a tip,” she said, noting that in Europe at the time, tipping was in addition to a wage.

She said the current push does not seek to do away with tipping, but would make it so the base wage an employee makes must be in line with or above the state minimum.

“So you get tips; it’s just that you’re not completely reliant on them. So if someone harasses you, you can say, ‘buzz off, I can count on a wage from my boss like every other worker in every other industry,’” she said.

The New York State Restaurant Association opposes the move because it claims it could backfire. Through conversations with members of the industry, they feel it isn’t needed.

“By and large, tipped employees are the highest-paid employees in the restaurant, earning their tips in addition to their wage,” said President and CEO Melissa Fleischut.

Fleischut stressed that restaurants already must pay servers minimum wage if tips don’t get to that level on a given night.

She said should New York join the seven states the U.S. Department of Labor says currently require tipped employees to earn at least minimum wage, it could harm both employees and business owners by way of service charges.

“Which, basically, is like a mandatory gratuity of 20 percent or maybe more, and as a result, costumers are tipping less, or maybe not at all,” she said.

Assembly Member Carrie Woerner, who leads the Small Business Committee, said her constituents in Saratoga County, with its heavy service industry, tell her they prefer the status quo.

“There is a sense from the service workers themselves that this wage structure has not disadvantaged them in any way, so I do not feel any sense of urgency,” she said.

In response, Jayaraman emphasized that she wants to get the word out that it’s not a change that workers should be apprehensive about.

“This is not a change in the way you are paid,”  she said. “It’s a wage increase, and tips remain exactly as they were.”

Additionally, González-Rojas said the bill would include built-in time for restaurants to adjust, as well as an opt-in tip sharing program among employees who aren’t waitstaff that would be up to the restaurant to implement. 

“The bill would slowly phase out the subminimum wage (currently at $10.65 per hour) for restaurant workers so that over five years, they will earn the statewide minimum wage (currently at $16 per hour) with tips on top,” she said.

Editor's Note: The original first line of this story has been updated to avoid the interpretation that many tipped workers do not receive minimum wage.