I’d really like to know how long socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) spent working in a restaurant as a bartender, because the way she talks about it, the job might as well have been classified as “indentured servitude.” As someone who worked in restaurants for 11 years — five as a bartender — it could be said that her recent assessment of restaurant wages makes her seem like she’s never worked in a restaurant.
Ocasio-Cortez recently partnered with Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC) to push the One Fair Wage campaign, which calls on legislators nationwide to “require the restaurant industry to pay all its employees at least the full minimum wage.”
The New York representative spoke at a restaurant in Queens, while also serving a couple of drinks and waiting tables. You know, so she can seem super relatable. But it was what Ocasio-Cortez said that might make some people cringe.
“In the federal tipped minimum wage is $2.13 an hour. That is unacceptable,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Any job that pays $2.13 an hour is not a job. It’s indentured servitude.”
Here's video of Ocasio-Cortez's comments:
@AOC: "Any job that pays $2.13 an hour is not a job. It's indentured servitude." pic.twitter.com/BqI5TPeSXT
— ROC United (@rocunited) May 31, 2019
Back the truck up, lady. It’s what Ocasio-Cortez isn’t saying that should raise some eyebrows.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division’s “Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)," under the heading of “Requirements”:
Employers electing to use the tip credit provision must be able to show that tipped employees receive at least the minimum wage when direct (or cash) wages and the tip credit amount are combined. If an employee's tips combined with the employer's direct (or cash) wages of at least $2.13 per hour do not equal the minimum hourly wage of $7.25 per hour, the employer must make up the difference.
Funny how politicians always seem to leave out those pretty-important-to-the-topic details, isn’t it?
It’s literally illegal for tipped employees to be paid less than the federal minimum wage, so Ocasio-Cortez is basically playing the shell game with the outrage information she tells people. What Ocasio-Cortez essentially wants is both the tips and the regular minimum wage, but if you started tipped employees out at the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hr., how many fewer employees would restaurants be able to afford to hire?
There’s a reason so many people work in restaurants, and it’s because of the tips. It’s pretty much the only job you don’t need an abundance of skills to perform and still make a livable amount of money.
A politician will only tell people what they want them to hear. What they’re not telling you — or what they intentionally leave out so everything fits their agenda — is what people should take note of.
H/T: Fox Business