Marketplace is paywall-free because of listeners like you. 🧡 Donate now

The minimum wage for tipped workers is on the ballot in two states

Oct 21, 2024
In Massachusetts and Arizona, voters will decide if a lower official wage for tipped workers should be phased out or made permanent.

What if tips weren't taxed?

Aug 13, 2024
Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris support eliminating federal taxes on tips. It might attract votes from tipped workers, who make up 2.5% of the American labor force. But what would it mean for tax policy?
The Tax Foundation estimates that eliminating income taxes on tips would cost at least $107 billion in revenue over 10 years.
SDI Productions/Getty Images

How the end of slavery led to two different minimum wages

Feb 9, 2021
After the Civil War, companies didn’t want to reach into their own pockets to pay recently freed enslaved people.
The national tipped minimum wage is just $2.13 an hour. Companies have to kick in more if workers don't make at least $7.25 an hour when you add in their tips.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

"Tip baiting" is just the latest battle over tips among gig workers

Apr 10, 2020
Gig platforms have long been ambivalent about encouraging tips that many workers depend on.
An Uber Eats delivery worker on March 19 in New York City.
Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Minimum wage hike would boost tipped workers' pay

Aug 8, 2019
The House-passed Raise the Wage Act would phase out the $2.13 an hour federal minimum for tipped workers.
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images