ELIMINATING THE TIPPED WAGE WOULD BE ANOTHER ECONOMIC MISSTEP FOR RHODE ISLAND

   

PROVIDENCE (June 23, 2015): The following statement may be attributed to Bill Vernon, NFIB Rhode Island State Director of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) regarding the General Assembly’s proposal to eliminate tipped wages in the state: 

“The proposal to eliminate the tipped wage in Rhode Island is a misguided attack on Rhode Island’s biggest industry – the hospitality and restaurant industry. It is makes no economic sense for the General Assembly to damage small businesses and jobs in the industry that in many ways has kept the state afloat during the recent recession and agonizingly slow recovery. 

 

“Workers who earn the tipped wage are guaranteed the minimum wage that the GA has already increased for the fourth consecutive year. Eliminating the tipped wage will cause economic pain to workers who will lose their jobs, small businesses that will struggle to survive as profits decline, and to the state whose revenues from sales, meals and room taxes will disappear.”