the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Apr 2, 2007
The proposed minimum wage bill still in the Congress would raise the wage to $7.25 in two years. But it’s different for workers with tips. Right now they can receive only $2.13 an hour, and the proposed bill leaves that level unchanged!
Why should any worker have to rely on the generosity of the customers for most of their pay? As the millions of waiters and waitresses, bartenders, Skycaps, wheel chair pushers and others depending on tips know full well, often people don’t tip, especially some of the richest ones.
No doubt the bosses paying $2.13 an hour would prefer to pay nothing, and unlike under slavery, they wouldn’t have to pay for food and shelter. $2.13 an hour is pretty close to nothing.
The politicians pretending to do something about the working poor prove whose interests they are really protecting when they leave the millions of workers getting tips at $2.13 an hour.