US Department of Labor Lifts Up Women in the Restaurant Industry

The Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis at an event at the Department of Labor yesterday said that "the gender pay gap for female restaurant workers is 86 cents on the dollar compared to male restaurant workers. And because the majority of restaurant workers are women, the pay gap issue that affects all of us, affects them even more adversely." Read her full statement here.

With women working the majority of tipped jobs a simple and economy-boosting solution is to raise the tipped minimum wage in order to close this historic inequity between men and women. The WAGES Act, introduced by Donna Edwards (D-MD) would do just that, bringing the tipped minimum wage up to 70% of the regular minimum wage. Currently the tipped minimum wage stands frozen at $2.13/hour since 1991. Click here to learn more and to support the WAGES Act.