Abolish the Sub-minimum Wage

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Abolish the Sub-minimum Wage

State of Tennessee

Many people don't realize that our too-low minimum wage can, in fact, get lower. It's called the sub-minimum wage, and it applies in industries where workers are expected to make a living off of customer tips. That means restaurant workers and other tipped employees can be paid as little as $2.13 an hour, a rate that hasn't increased since 1991. This substandard pay robs workers of their dignity, leaving them reliant on customers' whims, making tipped employees the only workers without an agreed-upon sustainable wage for their services. It disempowers workers, who have no leverage to negotiate with their bosses, and is a factor in the mistreatment and harassment that runs rampant in the service industry. It puts workers under the thumb of both management and customers. It is unjust and indefensible: to ensure a thriving workers' economy and societal justice, we must provide dignity and equality for all. We must abolish the sub-minimum wage.

Sign our petition and demand dignity from state legislatures and join the union. Memphis Restaurant Workers United (affiliate of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1529): https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/join-rwu/

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Workers Interfaith Network

To: State of Tennessee
From: [Your Name]

Abolish the sub-minimum wage. Workers within many industries rely upon a patron’s tips to subsidize employers’ refusal to pay a living wage, while paying their employees a substandard wage as low as $2.13 an hour. This meager pay rate used to be coupled with the federal minimum wage, but due to cooperate lobbyists, the rate became independent and fixed since 1991. Moreover, because of inflation, this rate is worth merely half what it was the year it was determined. This substandard pay leaves workers reliant upon a patron’s whims, making tipped employees the only workers without an agreed upon sustainable wage prior to services rendered, despite giving services that are expected. Furthermore, this puts these workers at the risk of harassment. They are pressured by management and consumers alike to excuse, or worse— engage with, bad behavior in order to give the best perceived service possible.
The subminimum wage is an inherently oppressive standard, codified by the structural racism within the Thirteenth Amendment and The New Deal. It excuses pay altogether for the incarcerated, should a citizen be deemed a criminal. This was and still largely is arbitrated by skin color, disproportionately so, and generations of racism. Not dissimilarly, the New Deal lacked protections for predominantly Black workforces, industries reliant upon paternalism and tips for wages. Whereas a federal minimum wage was determined for most industries, tipped employees received no such protection, and a substandard pay rate was deemed acceptable in America’s 1933 Jim Crow culture.
In order to ensure a thriving worker’s economy and societal justice, we must provide dignity and equality for all. We must abolish the subminimum wage.