State Rep. Chris Rabb applauds decision to adjust minimum wage for tipped workers

Rep. Christopher M. Rabb    March 24, 2022 | 3:10 PM

HARRISBURG, March 24 -- State Rep. Chris Rabb, D-Phila, applauds the decision to adjust the wage threshold to more than quadruple what far too many hardworking people across Pennsylvania earn as tipped workers.

Under this new rule, adopted unanimously by the Independent Regulatory Review Commission on Monday, tipped workers can only be paid below minimum wage if they make over $135 per month in tips — a threshold which used to be just $30.

“I stand in solidarity with the tens of thousands of people earning a poverty wage of $2.83 per hour — far below the state minimum wage of $7.25 per hour — which too is an unacceptably low wage floor,” Rabb said. “Nobody should work full time and still live in poverty while billionaires expand their wealth at a record pace during this pandemic.”

Rabb has introduced legislation that would protect vulnerable members of the workforce. HB 15 would increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour indexed to inflation, strengthen worker protections against wage theft and expand eligibility to classes of workers originally excluded from the federal law enacted in 1938 that created the minimum wage. These marginalized workers include incarcerated workers, gig workers and workers with intellectual disabilities.

Rabb has also recently circulated a resolution to conduct a cost/benefit analysis for employer incentives relating to instituting a four-day workweek.

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