The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found in an analysis last month that employers could pocket $5.8 billion in gratuities earned by their employees each year as a result of the rule. In a statement Thursday, the EPI said the Bloomberg Law report shows the lengths to which the Trump administration and Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta will go to hide the fact that they are taking steps to make workers’ lives worse. “DOL should release its analysis immediately or, better yet, withdraw its proposal and refocus on its mission of serving working people, not big business,” Heidi Shierholz, the EPI’s senior economist and director of policy, said.
The Hill
February 2, 2018
It’s difficult to put an exact number to how much tip income is in jeopardy, as several states across the country have more specific legislation that protects worker pay. A December EPI study looking into the potential impacts of the rule change noted that 15 states have particularly protective tip policies, including California, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania and Utah. But restaurant industry lobbying groups have long fought against the Obama-era provision that first protected the earnings of tipped workers. In a statement issued last year, Angelo Amador, the executive director of the Restaurant Law Center, said Obama’s Labor Department was “unfairly discriminating against restaurant employees who work in the back-of-the-house” by enforcing the rule and that “restaurant workers’ rights cannot be subjected to this overstep of authority.” Neither the National Employment Law Project nor the Economic Policy Institute expressed immediate plans Thursday to challenge Trump’s Labor Department in court – but neither specifically ruled out such an option to reporters on Thursday’s call.
U.S. News and World Report
February 2, 2018
According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a nonprofit think tank, the change could cost American workers up to $5.8 billion in tips. Women would be hurt the most, with $4.6 billion coming from women-dominated service industries, from servers and bartenders to hair stylists.
Salon
February 2, 2018
The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, has released its own study of the issue, which suggests that $5.8 billion in tips would be taken from workers by owners each year, a little more than a 16% of all annual gratuities.
Quartz
February 2, 2018
While the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) also called on the department to “release its analysis immediately or, better yet, withdraw its proposal and refocus on its mission of serving working people, not big business,” the group has released its own analysis outlining the likely consequences of the proposed “tip stealing” rule (pdf).
EPI’s analysis predicts that if the department’s proposal is finalized:
- tipped workers would lose $5.8 billion a year in tips, with $4.6 billion of that coming from the pockets of women working in tipped jobs;
- the take-home pay of back-of-the-house or other nontipped workers would remain largely unchanged; and
- restaurant owners and other employers of tipped workers would get a $5.8 billion a year windfall.
Common Dreams
February 2, 2018
Well, about that. Bloomberg reports that the Department of Labor did in fact complete a study on how much money employers would steal from their workers, but senior officials ordered staff not to include it in the final proposal because it happened to show that “workers could lose billions of dollars in tips as a result of the proposal.” (A week after the study-less proposal was released, the Economic Policy Institute releasedits own study showing that employers would pocket $5.8 billion of workers’ tips.) According to Bloomberg, the department leadership was “uncomfortable” with everyone knowing exactly how fucked this proposal is:
Splinter News
February 2, 2018
The Department of Labor said it will publish a quantitative analysis of a proposed change to a tip pool rule — but not before the comment period has ended. “As previously stated, after receiving public comment, the department intends to publish an informed cost-benefit analysis as part of any final rule,” a DOL spokesperson said. The comments come after Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration suppressed an internal analysis showing the rule change would transfer billions from restaurant employees to business owners. The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute published its own analysis in January claiming workers would lose $5.8 billion in tips. Democratic lawmakers demanded the administration rescind the proposed rule in light of the revelations. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), ranking member on the Senate HELP Committee, accused the DOL of a “botched cover-up” and said the Trump administration should “abandon this effort immediately.” In a notice of proposed rulemaking posted in December, DOL said it “has asked some specific questions that may help the Department quantify benefits and transfers.” The rule remains open for comment until Feb. 5.
Politico Pro
February 2, 2018
The Economic Policy Institute has estimated the new rule will cost tipped workers $5.8 billion a year. That fact rather undermines the Trump administration’s claim that its policies are good for workers.
The National Review
February 2, 2018
The new tipping proposal would disproportionately affect women, the Economic Policy Institute said in its report. Of the $5.8 billion nationally in tips per year they estimate would be shifted from workers to employers, $4.6 billion — nearly 80 percent — would be pulled from the pockets of women working tipped jobs, the report says. These high numbers for women can be attributed to the fact that women are more likely to both be tipped and earn lower wages.
The Texas Tribune
February 2, 2018
Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute pointed out the missing impact data back in December. She now says in a statement that: Thanks to excellent reporting, we now know that DOL did produce an estimate, which showed that the rule would be terrible for workers, shifting billions of dollars from workers to employers—so they scrubbed it. In so doing, they ensured that workers, advocates, and anyone else who wants to comment on the proposal would have to do so without key information about the impact of the rule. This shows the lengths to which the Trump administration and Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta will go to hide the fact that they are taking steps to actively make workers’ lives worse. The EPI’s estimate was that tipped workers would lose $5.8 billion to their bosses. We still don’t know exactly how much the Labor Department estimated that would be, since they haven’t released the analysis they previously denied even having done. Shierholz, as well as Christine Owens of the National Employment Law Project, is calling on the Labor Department to withdraw the tip-stealing proposal.
Daily Kos
February 2, 2018