Massachusetts Minimum Wage Increase Leaves 120,000 Tipped Workers Behind

麻州眾議會十八日以124比24票，通過法案，同意在未來三年間，把最低時薪提高到十一元，增幅達31%。

            上星期，麻州參議會以35票比4票，通過該案。該法案將在通過兩會的法規投票這額外程序後，交付麻州州長派區克（Deval Patrick）簽署。

派區克表示，參眾兩會在這一法案上做了相當好的妥協。事實上，該法案的最低時薪增加到十一元的速度，比某些活躍分子藉選票問題所倡議的還快。

該一最低時薪調整法案，要求在2015年一月一日時，把最低時薪從現有的八元增加到九元，之後每年條漲一元，直到2007年調到十一元。小費工人的最低時薪，將從現有的二元六角三分，到2007年時調整為三元七角五分。

麻州眾議會勞工及人力發展委員會共同主席康若伊（Thomas Conroy）表示，這是從1999年以來，小費工人第一次調漲時薪。

餐館機會中心（Restaurant Opportunities Centers)昨日表示，儘管麻州的把最低時薪從現在的八元，提高到2017年時的十一元，將使麻州成為美國最低時薪最高的一州，但麻州小費工人的最低薪資提到每小時3.65元，卻將仍是低得可憐。

該中心指出，麻州小費工人目前的2.63元最低時薪，僅比聯邦政府的額度高50分而已。一旦提高，將是十五年來的第一次調漲。

該中心還指出，麻州內的小費工人有66%是女性，各州侍應生也絕大部分是女性。小費工人的最低薪資調漲幅度太低，和沒調整沒太大差別，將讓這些從業人員繼續的極端仰賴顧客大方以維持生活，繼續忍受各種的顧客性騷擾。

Massachusetts Minimum Wage Increase Leaves 120,000 Tipped Workers Behind

Boston, MA -- Although Massachusetts is poised to have the highest state minimum wage in the country by raising its current $8 minimum wage to $11 per hour by 2017, the state’s tipped minimum wage would remain abysmally low at a proposed $3.65 an hour. Yesterday, the bill was approved by the State House of Representatives and Democratic Governor Deval Patrick is expected to sign.

The state’s current tipped minimum wage is $2.63 which is just $.50 cents more than the federal tipped minimum wage of $2.13 an hour. The proposed $1.02 increase would be the first raise in 15 years for Massachusetts’s tipped workers. Currently, their median wage (including tips) is $9 an hour.

“Sixty-six percent of tipped workers in Massachusetts are women. Servers are overwhelmingly women in every state. With a base wage as low as this bill’s proposed $3.65 an hour, women will remain dependent on the largesse of customers for their livelihood,” said Saru Jayaraman, co-founder and co-director of Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United. “In addition to low and unpredictable pay, servers across the country have told us about having to put up with all kinds of sexual harassment from customers because they are dependent on tips. When tipped workers get left out of minimum wage increases, or in Massachusetts’s case, the increase is so low it amounts to no difference on a server’s paycheck, it is women who suffer. It’s time for one fair minimum wage.”

The restaurant industry has been targeted by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as the single-largest source of sexual harassment charges filed by women. Nationally, servers use food stamps at double the rate of the rest of the US workforce and are three-times as likely to live in poverty.

Find more information about Massachusetts’s tipped workforce here: http://rocunited.org/state-of-tipped-workers-massachusetts/