Meg Cowan | Oppose SB416

I oppose SB 416. As someone who worked as a server and was forced to share hard-earned tips with people who did far less to make the dining experience great for customers, I do not need this bill explained to me in theory. I understand exactly what it means in practice. Anyone who has actually done this work knows that tips are earned table by table through speed, composure, memory, people skills, and the ability to keep customers happy even when the kitchen is behind, orders are wrong, or someone decides to take out their bad day on the server. Servers are the ones smoothing over problems, keeping service moving, and carrying the pressure of the entire guest experience. Those tips are earned. They are not a management fund to redistribute at will. If back-of-house workers are not being paid a living wage, then employers should raise their pay. That is where the responsibility belongs. Servers’ income should not be raided to fill a wage gap that management created and has the power to fix. If a restaurant depends on taking money earned by tipped workers to make up for inadequate pay elsewhere, that is not fairness. It is cost-shifting at the expense of the very workers who are already relying on tips to survive. If workers choose voluntarily to pool or share tips among themselves, that is their decision. But this bill is about taking that choice away. It gives employers more control over workers’ earnings while pretending to solve a problem that employers themselves should be required to address honestly and directly. SB 416 is an anti-worker bill dressed up as flexibility. It helps employers. It does not protect the people doing the work.