ALEC supports worker collectivism and redistribution of wealth

From Gordon Lafer’s report for the Economic Policy Institute:

In Wyoming, a bill co-sponsored by a group of ALEC-affiliated legislators and backed by the Restaurant Association would have given employers the right to force employees to pool their tips.159 While employees may have previously pooled tips, this was done voluntarily. In many restaurants, bussers, who are legally considered tipped employees, in fact receive little tip income.160 In such cases, employers are required to pay them the regular minimum wage. By forcing more highly tipped wait staff to pool earnings, employers may avoid this obligation—essentially cutting the take-home pay of wait staff by making them pay the bussers’ wages, with employers pocketing the difference as increased profits.

In 2011, Maine legislators adopted a new law declaring that “service charges” do not legally constitute tips, and that they are therefore not the property of wait staff and may be taken by the employer.161 The statute—sponsored by an ALEC task force member and supported by the Restaurant Association—does not require restaurants to notify customers that the “service charge” does not go to servers; many patrons likely believe this charge constitutes the gratuity, and therefore provide little if any additional tip.162 As in Wyoming, then, the Maine law constitutes a direct transfer of income from employees to owners, accomplished through the latter’s political power.

Footnote 162 reads as follows: “The law stipulates that an ’employer in a banquet or private club setting may use some or all of any service charge to meet its obligation to compensate all employees'”.

One Comment

  1. Glenn November 8, 2013 at 3:22 pm | #

    The difference between the poor and the wealthy is that the poor must pay for everything they buy; as for wealthy, their income is paid to them by what they buy. So suggested Lacan that this be meditated upon.

    The purchase of labor power results in payment from the labor collective to the collective’s owner.

    Likewise with the purchase of legislation.

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