While the U.S. campaign by fast-food workers to boost their minimum hourly wage to $15 is gaining momentum, a similar push to increase hourly pay for tipped employees is moving at a slower pace.
Since 1991, the federal minimum wage for tipped employees—food servers, bartenders, valet parkers, airport attendants, food delivery, nail salon and car wash workers, among others—has been $2.13 per hour.
Until about three years ago, advocates who support raising the federal minimum wage above $7.25 per hour expected their counterparts focused on boosting wages for tipped workers to “compromise away” their objectives, Saru Jayaraman, a co-founder and ...