Bill Text: HI SB2784 | 2024 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating To Tipped Employees.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 9-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2024-02-12 - The committee on LBT deferred the measure. [SB2784 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2024-SB2784-Introduced.html
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THE SENATE |
S.B. NO. |
2784 |
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THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2024 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to tipped employees.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the tip credit
unfairly penalizes employees who work in the service industry. According to historians, tipping originated in feudal Europe. The practice spread throughout the United
States after the Civil War as employers in the hospitality industry looked for
ways to avoid paying freed slaves.
The legislature further finds that numerous
studies have found that the tip credit worsens sexual harassment in the
workplace. Tipped employees are often
reluctant to file complaints about sexually predatory customers for fear of
losing the tips on which they rely for income. According to a study performed by a team of
researchers from the University of Notre Dame, Pennsylvania State University,
and Emlyon Business School in France that was published in the "Journal of
Applied Psychology", dependency on tips and a requirement to appear emotionally
pleasant on the job increase an employee's risk of being sexually harassed. Additionally, a 2018 report by the Restaurant
Opportunities Center, a nonprofit group that advocates for better working
conditions for restaurant workers, found that a majority of respondents who
reported experiencing sexual harassment associated that harassment to their
dependence on tips.
The legislature also finds that the tip
credit acts as a "tip penalty" that decreases the financial
well-being of service industry workers.
According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's living wage
calculator, a single individual must earn $22.76 per hour to meet basic needs
in Honolulu, while an individual with only one child must earn $45.12 per
hour. However, service sector workers
are often paid the State's base minimum wage rate. Some service industry employees have even
reported that the tip credit is deducted from their wages automatically,
regardless of whether they are compensated at the minimum level required by
state law for the tip credit to become applicable. This problem may be occurring more frequently
than public data or workplace complaints show because tip-credit requirements
are often inadequately understood by service industry employers and employees.
The legislature notes that President Joe
Biden has repeatedly expressed support for abolishing the tip credit. Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to
strengthen the financial security of service industry employees by repealing
the tip credit.
SECTION 2. Section 387-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§387-2 Minimum wages. [(a)]
Except as provided in section 387-9 [and this section], every
employer shall pay to each employee employed by the employer, wages at the rate
of not less than:
(1) $6.25 per hour beginning January 1, 2003;
(2) $6.75 per hour beginning January 1, 2006;
(3) $7.25 per hour beginning January 1, 2007;
(4) $7.75 per hour beginning January 1, 2015;
(5) $8.50 per hour beginning January 1, 2016;
(6) $9.25 per hour beginning
January 1, 2017;
(7) $10.10 per hour beginning January 1, 2018;
(8) $12.00 per hour beginning October 1, 2022;
(9) $14.00 per hour beginning January 1, 2024;
(10) $16.00 per hour beginning January 1, 2026; and
(11) $18.00 per hour beginning January 1, 2028.
[(b)
The hourly wage of a tipped employee may be deemed to be
increased on account of tips if the employee is paid no less than:
(1) 25 cents;
(2) 50 cents per
hour beginning January 1, 2015;
(3) 75 cents per
hour beginning January 1, 2016;
(4) $1.00 per hour
beginning October 1, 2022;
(5) $1.25 per hour
beginning January 1, 2024; and
(6) $1.50 per hour
beginning January 1, 2028,
below the applicable minimum wage by the
employee's employer and the combined amount the employee receives from the
employee's employer and in tips is at least 50 cents more than the applicable
minimum wage; provided that beginning January 1, 2015, the combined amount the
employee receives from the employee's employer and in tips is at least $7.00
more than the applicable minimum wage.]"
SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.
SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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Report Title:
Tip Credit; Tipped Employees; Repeal
Description:
Repeals the authority of employers to pay tipped employees less than the minimum wage.
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
