Just when you thought President Donald Trump couldn’t sink any lower, his Labor Department legalizes wage theft.
Waiters and waitresses work hard to earn tips. That’s how they make their money since they don’t get paid a regular hourly wage. Therefore, they rely on the appreciation of the customers they serve.
And now the Labor Department wants to punish these workers with a new rule that will likely make their lives a living hell.
The rule would give employers the ability to take tips away from their employees and give them to other employees.
“Under the proposed rule, workplaces would have the freedom to allow sharing of tips among more employees. The proposal would help decrease wage disparities between tipped and non-tipped workers – an option that is currently restricted by a rule promulgated in 2011 that has been challenged in a number of courts.”
The Labor Department went on to state that:
“Sharing tips through a tip pool with employees who do not traditionally receive direct tips – such as restaurant cooks and dish washers. These ‘back of the house’ employees contribute to the overall customer experience, but may receive less compensation than their traditionally tipped co-workers.”
You know what this sounds like? Socialism.
The government is literally giving employers the ability to steal tips and redistribute the money among the other employees or just pocket the money for themselves.
National Employment Law Project executive director Christine Owens criticized the rule for subsidizing the “low wage model” that many restaurants have adopted so they can basically have an excuse not to raise wages. Owens said:
“If companies have trouble retaining non-tipped workers because their pay is so low, the solution is for the companies to raise the wages of those workers, not for the Labor Department to rig the rules so employers can essentially steal earnings from tipped workers to subsidize the businesses’ low-wage model.”
Trump and the Republican Party are already raising taxes on the poor and middle class while giving the wealthy a massive tax break. And now servers who earn on average around $24,000 a year are going to make less money because their bosses can commit legal wage theft.
And let’s just take this opportunity to remind conservatives that this rule will hurt them, too. Because it’s not just liberals, who work in the foodservice industry. But we can definitely blame conservatives for this rule. After all, they voted for Trump.
Featured Image Via Pixabay/Public Domain.
