June 4, 2019 By Meghan Sackman
Congress Member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mixed drinks and waited on tables at a Jackson Heights restaurant Friday to promote legislation that would increase the federal minimum wage for tipped workers.
Nearly 100 guests and activists gathered at The Queensboro Restaurant, located at 80-02 Northern Blvd., to watch Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, a former bartender, serve customers at around 4 p.m. for an hour.
The event, held at the venue where Joseph Crowley learned of his defeat to Ocasio-Cortez in last June’s primary, aimed to promote the “Raise the Wage Act.”
This federal legislation, co-sponsored by Ocasio-Cortez, would raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 over the next six years. This would apply to tipped workers who currently receive sub-minimum wages, she said.
“The federal tipped minimum wage is $2.13 an hour. That is unacceptable,” said Ocasio-Cortez in a video tweeted by organizers of the event Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC). “Any job that pays $2.13 an hour is not a job, it’s indentured servitude.”
Although New York State has a much higher tipped minimum wage, between $7.50 to $10 per hour depending on a business’s size and location in the state, Ocasio-Cortez encouraged Governor Cuomo to sign off on increasing tipped workers base wage to be $15 like other New York workers.
New York is one of 43 states, not including Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, that has a subminimum wage for tipped workers, she said.
Dudley Stewart, co-owner of The Queensboro Restaurant, said Ocasio-Cortez’s Raise the Wage Act is a step in the right direction and he agreed to hold the event since he wants to learn more about the legislation.
“We want to open up discussion about the minimum wage and raising it,” Stewart said. “It’s a complicated subject so we want to see what would be best for both the restaurants and their employees.”
The legislation was introduced on Jan. 16, 2019 and has been referred to the House Education and Labor committee.
I was nervous that I may have lost my touch – still got it! That muscle memory doesn’t quit ?
Now let’s pass #RaiseTheWage and get $15 an hour minimum for every worker in America. pic.twitter.com/FR0ARUB7bd
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 31, 2019
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58 Comments
my thing about this if this happens are the restaurants going to stop accepting tips? and if so wouldn’t you make more money out of tips then you do at an hourly rate? cause i’m pretty sure if the restaurants have to start paying hourly the prices of food will go up at the place. so i was just wondering about that…
Hey seeing that she is a socialist can I get a free beer and meal? . How are we going to pay for free things? the tree moray with leaves of money doesn’t exists comrade.
Socialism doesn’t mean free shit, it just means democracy in the workplace.
thanks for being the stereotype
You won’t need money where we’re going, everything is free! The government just you know, pays for it.
Sad!
1 . I despise Trump
2. You completely missed the “Back to the Future” reference.
3. AOC is an imbecile.
In the imbecile’s own words:
https://dailycaller.com/2018/11/06/ocasio-cortez-medicare-for-all-pay/
Ignore the loser. All they do is complain and attack anyone who has different views cause they think they’re the best thing since sliced bread.
Ultimately the landlords will be the beneficiary of the increased hourly wage, as the workers will compete for limited housing stock trying to outbid each other.
The only reason I need to never spend a penny at this dive! A witness there said they watched her & she didn’t wash her hands once after handling different food & drinks. #HealthViolations
“A witness…”?
Crack job at reporting there. What are you going to say in your Pulitzer Prize acceptance speech?
You won’t spend a penny at this place (you probably never heard of before) because the owners support the idea of workers getting paid more? Hm.
I didnt like being a busboy way back when and made like 2.50 + tips
then I went to college got a degree and I bust my butt at my job and am doing ok and own a home in sunnyside and raising a few kids there. if you dont like your salary you can always better yourself and get a job elsewhere. The unemployment rate s like 3%.
its actually something people have control over, if you want better you can go out and get it
Dems do get it- So people with limited mental capacity or with limited means should be relegated to a life of poverty. You don’t get it, Democratic states out perform Republican states fact, just look it up. The least educated states, states with highest crime rates and lowest wages and highest incarceration rates are all Republican strongholds like Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, South Carolina.
Yeah how about Democrat run cities like the big apple Chicago Baltimore Oakland Compton DC Seattle highest crime rates in the country wake up and take off them rose colored lenses
Tyrone- Cities are within states. According the FBI the highest crime cities are Memphis, Oakland Atlanta Baltimore, Indianapolis, Cleveland go look them up..Where did you get Seattle from? Let us guess FoxNews.hahaha You love Republicans so much you should move to a Right to work state. Put your money where your mouth is.
Have u seen Seattle lately pal. Vagrants crime filthy streets. Fox news?? don’t have time to view the tube pal working for the establishment takes up my time. Yes FBI stats that downgraded by local law enforcement. Here in our socialist metropolis we have Con stat ” Con New Yorkers that crime is down. I believe stats and polls just like Hillary was a 99% shoe in for the presidency .
@Tyrone- I don’t know where in Seattle you were but your description is nothing of what I experienced in the city while I spent 10 months there last year on assignment for a tech start up.
You were completely disproved by the facts: Republican states have the highest crime.
Your rebuttal? “Have u seen Seattle lately pal.”
Great argument….
Tyrronnne- What about the other horrible statistics pointed out by Mac? Infant mortality doesn’t matter you? Republican efforts to keep wages low and undermine people’s access to education and healthcare is fine with you?
Your fabulous LIB RUN STATES are losing people. You need a reality check.
Lily- You need to check your facts, California will have a net gain of population unlike what Fox is propagandizing. The states losing people are states where people have retirements good wages and expensive housing markets thanks to Democratic policies. They’re retirees escaping harsh winters and cashing out and taking advantage of cheap housing markets and labor markets of Republican sunbelt states that rob their citizens of economic opportunity. If you’re so fond of Republican policy move to a right to work for less state.
Truth is; they both sinking down. Both!!!
Earning it is the wrong way to do Mac the democrats think its should be given on a silver platter and just sit back and freeloader
Yes like tax giveaways to the richest 1%.
I’ll bet you live in your mom’s basement.
Keyboard warriors lily that are sipping the dollar coffee at Brooklyn bagel or nursing the 5 dollar latte with free wifi while searching for jobs that they cant qualify for . Kudos Lily!
Yes Lily you got me. If you can’t add to the discussion you really should just move on and leave the people who are capable of discussing an issue discuss it. I could tell by your other posts you were in over your head.
Mac tax cuts even for the 1%, allow people to keep their own money, unlike the 40+ % that pay no federal income tax. Just keep you face in the trough and stop complaining about how fast the actual taxpayers fill it.
Anonymous- It cost money to run a country never mind a super power. Freedom ain’t free. You’re like a deadbeat dad, I love my kid except for financially supporting them. Get some standards.
Trump said it “makes him smart”. You’re saying the billionaire was wrong for not paying any taxes?!
I pay taxes douchebag, your false analogy not withstanding. Keep slopping at the trough.
How about a maximum wage and a 100% tax rate above that?
No one person, I don’t care how smart or talented, deserves more than… I dunno… $5 million per year.
She will be the president of USA in 15 years. This prediction is base on American racial changes for next 15 years. Latest time is 20 years. We will see Hispanic + woman + Democrat + socialist president. 20 years.
That’s a terrible prediction.
Doubtful. Latinos primarily live in blue states where their votes don’t matter. As long as the electoral college exists, midwestern and southern white people will outweigh the Latino popular vote. Also, Latinos aren’t a generic voting bloc…a lot them think they’re white and better than other minorities so they vote Republican.
Besides…Latin countries are largely failures, so immigrants from those countries don’t want to see that failure here.
Texas is majority minority, Latino.
I’m shocked!
You don’t like her? And you fear of future. We only have leader for our level.
She need’s to go and hang out in Venezuela… let’s see how many bars she can tend to…She has no clue what socialism is…She can try Cuba also as a vacation spot..dumb dumb
OMG is there anything Trump Lovers do than parrot “Cuba! Venezuela!”
The happiest countries in the world are all socialist:
* Norway
* Iceland
* The Netherlands
* Switzerland
* Sweden
Fox News didn’t mention that?!
All county you named, they have population less than 10 million. Plus they have over 70% income tax. So… can you pay 70% from what you makes? And, they have no military force. Sweden has 30 thousand troops for 10 million people…
If she was making less than $15.00 an hour as a bartender she was either worse at her old job than she is at her new one, or the place was failing.
What would be better than raising the minimum wage by $X/week? A broad-based punitive “vacancy tax” on vacant land and unoccupied buildings, which property owners are so keen to avoid that it *reduces rents* by $X/week. Why would this be better? Because:
(1) When you allow for income tax and withdrawal of welfare, a dollar *saved* is worth much more than a dollar *earned*.
(2) By themselves, higher wages would be competed away in higher rents. Landlords might even try to raise rents by the *gross* increase in wages, not allowing for the Effective Marginal Tax Rate.
(3) Nobody says lower rents would price workers out of a job! Indeed, the scramble to avoid the vacancy tax would *create* jobs. And the lower rents would create more jobs, because jobs can’t exist unless (a) the employers can afford business accommodation, and (b) the employees can afford housing within reach of their jobs, on wages that the employers can pay. (Implication: The tax should apply to both commercial & residential property.)
(4) Why should employers pay for a problem caused by deadbeat landowners?
(5) The economic activity driven by a vacancy tax would broaden the bases of other taxes, allowing their rates to be reduced, so that the rest of us would pay LESS tax!
Looking forward to all the comments by boomers with yogurt brains.
Great, the last place she worked went out of business due to the 15 dollar an hour wage.
Incorrect. She worked at Flats Fix in Union Sq, which is still very much in business, you troll POS.
They serve pastrami tacos. It’s a dive.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiight. it must a pretty good “dive” to be doing business in Union Square. Also, what’s your point?
That guy is a gullible and misinformed guy. $15 an hour wage went into effect January 1st 2019 if the business went out of business there was something more at play like escalating rent especially in Manhattan. Quit spreading rumors. Birthers, uranium one now this. Do you people have any faith in your ideology?
Oh, I thought it went out of business because of the bike lanes.
Why not raise it to $50 an hour?
I’m being facetious.
It’s just really unfunny
How about $100 an hour? That’s a “living wage” in my book.
$100 an hour? Cheapskate.
Should be $200!
Lily you are so uninformed -The living wage of $15 is not arbitrary it’s an determined by calculating the PPS- purchasing power standard of a country.The hourly minimum wage in Australia is US$14.14, Luxembourg at US$13.14 per hour, New Zealand at US$11.28 per hour, France at US$11.24 per hour, while the Netherlands offers US$11.01.
The hourly rate in the United States yields the equivalent of US$6.63 of purchasing power, according to the report, almost four times that of Russia’s, which is worth only $1.87 in purchasing power terms.
Purchasing power standard (PPS) is an artificial common reference currency unit used in the European Union which eliminates the differences of price levels between countries.
Theoretically, one PPS can buy the same amount of goods and services in each country. The aggregates expressed in PPS are calculated by dividing the aggregates expressed in current prices and in national currency by the Purchasing Power Parities (PPP).
Does that restaurant sell popcorn? I’m going to need a lot of it when reading the comments that are about to flood this place.