I am so proud of this video that features a friend of mine, Victoria Bruton. Victoria has been a server in the restaurant industry for more than 20 years. In this video she tells how she has struggled to raise her family at times.
She has told this story in public events before.
I know that it is really hard to share stories about being poor while you work and try your best.
The words just get stuck in your throat.
Victoria is a strong one though and she has always spoken with courage and conviction.
This video beautifully and poignantly brings in her daughters who now work in the restaurant industry too. They also, are earning less than $3/hour, just as their mother did 23 years prior.
The sub-minimum wage, or “tipped minimum” wage is a terrible injustice and it has to end.
Restaurant owners are the only business people in our nation that don’t pay for the labor of their employees. The current tipped-minimum wage is $2.13/hour nationally and $2.83/hour in Pennsylvania. Most servers don’t even get a paycheck, just a pay stub showing that paying taxes wiped out every cent of the $2.13/hour.
I often hear of restaurant owners being praised for their charitable work. How can you claim to be generous while not paying the workers that guarantee your success?
Generous owners should stand with us to demand that the federal government raise the tipped wage and re-link it to the federal minimum wage.
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