Saru Jayaraman pens a powerful Op-Ed that highlights the urgent need for Democrats to champion fair wages and economic justice for service workers in the wake of the 2024 election.
By Saru Jayaraman
President of One Fair Wage and Director of the Food Labor Research Center at University of California, Berkeley
When Sam Taub arrived for his shift at a restaurant in Detroit the evening after Election Day, he wasn’t fazed. For him, it was just another shift in a country that “doesn’t really care about workers.” Taub, 27, has been working in the restaurant industry for a decade and making $3.97 an hour plus tips. He’s among activists in Michigan who have been advocating to protect a phased in wage hike that would lead to them getting the same minimum wage as nearly everyone else in 2030.
“We feel ignored,” he said. “But it’s hard to talk about political theory when you’re hungry. Things are getting more expensive. Prices are going up. But we’re not being paid more and people are tipping less.”
Democrats will undoubtedly continue to debate why Kamala Harris lost the election and Donald Trump won but one thing is clear—if Democrats don’t step up to immediately deliver concrete wins for working people like Sam, they could very well lose again and again. Once in the White House, Donald Trump may make good on some of his misguided pro-worker promises and further diminish Democrats’ reputation with working class voters. Fortunately, there is a clear, immediate step Democrats can take to avoid trailing Republicans in delivering for working people: in blue states they control, like New York, Illinois, and Maryland, they can act immediately to raise the minimum wage for all workers, including service workers who need and deserve a full minimum wage with tips on top. This policy would allow workers to address the affordability crisis and put more money in working peoples’ pockets.
“It’s hard to talk about political theory when you’re hungry.“
Let’s review some recent history on these issues. For the first two years of Joe Biden’s presidency, Democrats held a majority in both the House and Senate. President Biden used that majority to pass progressive economic policy, including significant infrastructure spending and investments in domestic semiconductor manufacturing. But millions of Americans work in the service industry and other low-wage sectors did not feel any direct and immediate impact of these policies. And in 2021, when President Biden and Democratic leaders tried to help low-wage service workers by increasing the minimum wage and ending the subminimum wage for tipped workers, it was fellow Democrats who blocked it. Eight Senate Democrats blocked the measure, including then-Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema who famously—and condescendingly—courtseyed while delivering her thumbs down for the vote. At both the federal and state levels, working people like Sam want to see Democrats standing up for them vis-a-vis corporate interests, not gleefully siding with them.
When the 2024 election rolled around, with poll after poll showing that inflation and cost of living remained top issues for a majority of voters, it might have helped if Democrats could point to concrete steps they took to put more money in working people’s pockets. But they couldn’t. Instead, Donald Trump came out early in support of ending taxes on tips—an absurd proposal since, because of the subminimum wage for tipped workers, the majority don’t earn enough to even pay payroll taxes. Still, Trump stole the Democrats’ thunder. The candidate who, when president the first time, gave tax cuts to the super-rich, cut overtime pay, and tried to help restaurant owners pocket their workers’ tips, made himself look like the candidate of the working poor. Meanwhile Harris had a better policy—ending the subminimum wage and raising the minimum wage while also ending taxes on tips. But she didn’t run on the issue early and often, so Democrats managed to just seem like copy cast instead of trailblazers.
“Trump is all bad policy and good optics. Democrats have to beat him at his game and be good optics and good policy.”
Make no mistake, Donald Trump is masterful at masquerading oligarchy as populism. We can fully expect him to continue his faux-working class charades while in office. He understands optics. That’s why Trump delayed 2020 stimulus checks to voters—so he could put his name on them—unlike similar checks that went out under Obama or Biden. One might expect that to cover for Project 2025 plans to gut the National Labor Relations Board and other significant, structural changes to hurt working people in America, Trump might throw a bone like actually implementing the “no taxes on tips” proposal. So what can Democrats do? Act first.
Trump is all bad policy and good optics. Democrats have to beat him at his game and be good optics and good policy—while also beating him out of the gate. This window now, before Trump takes office, is the opportunity for Democrats to draw the distinction while also enacting meaningful policies that actually help working people with the side benefit of stealing Trump’s potential thunder.
That’s why smart Democratic leaders in places like New York, Illinois, Maryland and elsewhere are considering bills that would raise wages and end the subminimum wage for service workers, requiring all workers to be paid a full, livable wage with tips on top. It’s not only great policy—seven states that have already done so show higher wages and higher rates of tipping as well as strong business growth—but it’s great politics. Passing these policies would show working people that Democrats are courageous in standing up to corporate interests and stand on the side of the working people who are needed to win elections. It also happens to have the wonderful side benefit of being the right thing to do—helping the workers who make our economy thrive by making sure they get fair pay and can afford to put food on their own tables.
“Politicians need to see that we’re out here, fighting to survive,” said 33-year-old Juan Carlos Contera, who works two jobs as a cook and bartender in Manhattan. “They still have a chance to prove to us that they’ve heard us and that they actually care.”
The time is now for Democrats, especially where they have controlling majorities, to lead on working class issues—or continue to be left behind by voters. The time is now to pass progressive, real populist and popular economic justice policies like raising wages for all workers, including for those like Sam and Juan who serve us.
