A few dozen demonstrators gathered at the State House steps last Thursday to call for increasing the base amount tipped workers are paid. While the state’s general minimum wage is $11 per hour, tipped workers are only required to be paid $3.75 per hour in Massachusetts, with tips providing the rest. If tips fall short, the employer is supposed to supposed to make up the difference, but demonstrators assert that in effect this does not always happen.

On the web Behind the Kitchen Door report: http://rocunited.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/BKD_Boston_Report_W.pdf

The result, they say: Tipped workers live in uncertainty about their financial state and are especially vulnerable to sexual harassment as their livelihood depends on pleasing customers.

“I don’t know what my paycheck will look like at the end of every month – if I’ll be able to cover my expenses,” said Eduardo, who has spent five years as a tipped restaurant worker in Boston. On nights with few customers, he may make only $30 from a five-hour shift, he said, and he winters can be a struggle, as restaurant patronage often declines.

Policies affecting tipped workers in the Greater Boston region particularly affect women and workers of color, due to their higher representation in the field, according to an October 2016 “Behind the Kitchen Door” report released by the Restaurant Opportunities Center Boston, ROC United and the Boston Area Restaurant Industry Coalition. ROC describes itself as an organization of restaurant workers, owners and ethically-conscious eaters.

Rally organizers ROC Boston and Raise Up Massachusetts’ proposal: to provide greater financial security, maintain the practice of tipping, but raise tipped workers’ minimum wages to be in line with the minimum for other workers. The groups advocate for bills that would gradually raise tipped workers’ minimum wage to the same level as that earned by other workers. The bills also would increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2021, after which it would be adjusted for inflation.

Women and people of color

The “Behind the Kitchen Door” report analyzed surveys of 500 workers, 21 interviews with restaurant workers and 20 interviews with employers, as well as industry and government data. Those impacted by tipped worker policies are more likely to be women and people of color, the report shows.

While women comprise 49.1 percent of all Greater Boston area workers, they represent 63.7 percent of all tipped workers and 67.8 percent of all tipped restaurant workers, the report states. People of color comprise 25.4 percent of the area workforce, 31.7 percent of all area tipped workers and 28 percent of all area tipped restaurant workers.

Breaking out the people of color segment, black workers comprise 7.1 percent of workers in Greater Boston, 8.7 percent of tipped workers and 5.7 percent of tipped restaurant workers. Latinos make up 8.7 percent of the workforce, 11.8 percent of tipped workers and 13 percent of tipped restaurant workers.

Vulnerability

Three percent of Greater Boston area tipped workers indicated that they did not have their tips sufficiently supplemented to meet the standard minimum wage and 41 percent said they experienced working off the clock without pay, according to the “Behind the Kitchen Door” report. In the survey, twice as many tipped workers as non-tipped workers reported sexual harassment from customers. Because tipped workers tend to have less control over their schedules — and thus over whether they are placed at busy times when they can reap more tips — they also may be less likely to report mistreatment to their employers for fear of repercussion from making a fuss, Marisol Santiago, executive director of ROC-Massachusetts told the Banner.

Steve Clarke, director of government affairs for the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, says laws already are in place to require employers to guarantee that tipped workers take home at least the minimum wage and to have sexual harassment policies. Should these laws not be being enforced, the solution, he says, is not a bill to secure more stable wages, but for those harmed to report the problem. He advises employees to report the issue to mangers or bosses, and, if that is ineffective, call the attorney general’s office.

“Tipped employees are already guaranteed to make the minimum wage. That’s in law,” Clarke said. “In instances where it’s not implemented, that’s why we have the attorney general’s office.”

Feasibility

While some workers say they struggle to make ends meet, Clarke argues that tipped employees already often earn more than standard hourly workers in a restaurant do. He says owners cannot absorb the added costs of increasing tipped workers’ minimum wage in a way that would not dampen those earnings.

To balance out such additional wage costs, a restaurant may reduce the number of hourly and tipped staff and put greater burden on those they retain, Clarke said. A server might go from managing four tables to six. Or the restaurant owner may decrease other employees’ wages to keep their costs the same.

“Every dollar they give to a tipped employee is dollar less they can give to chef or dishwasher,” Clarke told the Banner.

Another option, Clarke said: restaurants may hike menu prices and balance that by instituting a no-tipping policy. In his view, even a slight price increase still would drive away customers, and the most motivated servers would leave for the higher earning potential of jobs at venues with tipping.

“Any time a restaurant brings up the menu price, that results in loss of guests [whether you] bring it up a nickel [or] bring it up a dollar,” Clarke said.

Meanwhile, Raise Up and ROC spokespeople say eight other states have passed legislation requiring that tipped workers receive the same minimum wage as others, in addition to their tips, and that this has not harmed restaurants or reduced tipping.

Bills currently in the Massachusetts House and Senate would enact such policy in this state.

Locally, Bon Me is phasing in a $15 per hour or higher wage for all its workers by 2018 and other restaurants such as Dudley Dough, Juliet and Just Cause Pizza have committed to $15 as well.