Tagged: minimum wage

March 21, 2015

Rhode Island Lawmakers Consider Raise in Minimum Wage for Tipped Workers

Brad Fagan / Flickr

In a move that could hurt small restaurants in Rhode Island, lawmakers consider a raise in the minimum wage for tipped workers. The current rate now is $2.89 an hour, which Representative Aaron Regunberg proposed it be raised to $4.50 in 2016.

Regunberg acknowledges that the state has not changed this rate in almost 20 years, and other states such as New York and Massachusetts have recently arranged to make similar adjustments.

The Providence Democrat proposes not just that is raises in 2016, but also that it would reach $9 in 2019, and be equivalent to the regular minimum wage by 2020.

More than 150 people went to the statehouse to voice their opinions on this bill. As expected, this faced some backlash but also some praise.

Some restaurant owners argue that this bill is unnecessary due to the circumstances that the tipped worker does not earn the state’s minimum wage of $9 per hour, than the restaurant has to compensate them for the balance.

However tipped workers would agree that the salary they are working on right now is tight and sometimes not enough to support a family. The current rate in Rhode Island is lower than surrounding states, with a rate of $4.58 an hour in Vermont and $3 an hour in Massachusetts, which is also considering similar legislation to eventually eliminate the two-tiered wage system.

Nearly 70 percent of Rhode Island’s tipped workers are women, and they are more likely than workers in other sectors to live in poverty and use food stamps, according to Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, which advocates for the nation’s restaurant workforce.

Governor Gina Raimondo recently approved of a bill to raise the actual minimum wage from $9 to $10.10, and has directed the state’s Department of Labor and Training to study how tipped workers are paid and measures of the existing law.

There will be much more research and discussion on this matter before any official changes are made, but it is definitely an issue that could make it or break it for small restaurants in the state.

February 6, 2015

Rhode Island to Raise Minimum Wage in 2016

In three years, Rhode Island has seen the minimum wage climb from $7.25 to $8 per hour. It just recently went up to $9 at the start of 2015. Now, state legislators will raise the minimum wage again, to $10.10 per hour effective Jan. 1, 2016.

Rep. David Bennett introduced the bill that would raise the current hourly minimum by $1.10, because he believes it is difficult to live off $9 an hour. He also argues that by boosting the minimum wage, they are hoping that will translate to more local money spent, which will help stimulate the economy.

“Now is a good time to give them another boost in their wages. As we come out of the recession, they’ll fare as well as everyone else,” said Bennett.

Sen. Leonidas P. Raptakis, a Coventry Democrat, also supports an increase of minimum wage, but proposes that it be relative to the Consumer Price Index, and caps increases at 50 cents per year.

Though Gina Raimondo is in favor of raising the minimum wage, that decision was not unanimous. At the hearing on the bill, smaller businesses and organizations opposed the bill, saying it would be very difficult to afford

Rhode Island is taking the lead for raising minimum wage in New England with this action, however Vermont, Connecticut and Massachusetts are also planning future raises.

Could this change help reduce the unemployment rate in Rhode Island, which is one of the worst in the country? It could add incentive for the many college students in the state to stay in the state after graduation. The job creation that could come from this may finally fuel the state’s brain drain that it has struggled with for years.