No Tax on Tips Was Never for Workers

A policy sold as help. A policy that delivered nothing. That was the design.

Tax Season just passed. For a lot of families, it meant a late Christmas.

Let me explain.

I have a new piece up at Common Dreams today on “No Tax on Tips” and what it delivered for working people. Before I get to that, I want to tell you about my mom.

One of the things we fail to recognize is that different classes have different cultures. And one of the defining cultural experiences of being poor in America is waiting for tax refund checks. So you can finally breathe. Maybe even get some things you wished for all year.

Growing up, I did not even know other people paid money during tax season. That is because of a policy called the Earned Income Tax Credit. The government’s way of saying: we know your job does not pay you enough, so here is some of it back.

My mom would check the mail every day in February. And when that check came, she’d buy us new shoes. Fill the fridge. Sit down at the table like the weight had come off her shoulders. Just for a week.

I called it February Christmas. My mom turned one week into a holiday. She made it feel like everything was going to be okay.

That is who she is. That is who millions of people are.

They deserve more than one week.

I thought about her this week, watching “No Tax on Tips” collide with reality. A policy sold as help for working people. A policy that, for most tipped workers, delivered nothing.

Two-thirds of tipped workers earn too little to owe federal income tax in the first place. A tax cut on income you do not owe is not a tax cut. It is a headline.

“No Tax on Tips” was not help. It was a performance of help. Trump knew. The Congressmembers who passed the law knew. Workers were the last to find out.

The policy tipped workers actually need is a raise — a real living wage, written into law. Corporate lobbying has spent generations and millions of dollars fighting to block it. The federal subminimum wage for tipped workers has been $2.13 an hour since 1991.

The cost of living crisis is a wage crisis. People do not earn what they deserve. That is why I do what I do — as Director of Narrative Strategy at One Fair Wage, supporting the Living Wage For All Coalition (building campaigns to win the highest minimum wage in US history). More on that work soon.

Read the full piece at Common Dreams → https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/no-tax-on-tips-not-for-workers