Taking back their tips

[NVMojo]

Congress' minimum wage hike would stiff those in Nevada's tip-intensive industries

August 3, 2006

Timing, they say, is everything. And a bill approved last weekend by the U.S. House of Representatives - rushing to adjourn for the August recess and hoping to have ammunition for the November elections - may have started the clock ticking in Nevada.

The Republican-dominated House found a way to stir up Nevada's low-income workers, anger others who sympathize with them and possibly provide a defining issue for the midterm elections: the minimum wage.

By Wednesday, which happened to be the 10th anniversary of the last increase in the federal minimum wage, Nevada dishwashers, waitresses, pizza chefs, valets, union chiefs and the political Class of '06 were all chattering about a bill that would adversely affect minimum-wage workers who also earn tips in seven states. That includes tens of thousands of Nevadans.

The bill, if approved by the Senate and signed by the president, would wipe out an expected $1 increase in Nevada's minimum wage, which was approved by 68 percent of the state's voters in 2004 and expected to be easily ratified this November.

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http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2006/aug/03/566626595.html