NWLC Reacts to DOL Cover-Up of Data Showing Proposed Tip Regulations Would Cost Workers Billions
(Washington, D.C.) This morning, reporting by Bloomberg Law revealed that the Department of Labor (DOL) prepared but then concealed an economic analysis concluding that its proposal to allow employers to keep their employees’ tips would cost working people billions of dollars.
The following is a statement by Emily Martin, National Women’s Law Center Vice President for Education and Workplace Justice:
“Contrary to DOL’s official assertions that it is ‘unable to quantify how customers will respond to [its] proposed regulatory changes’ and ‘currently lacks data to quantify possible reallocations of tips,’ today’s news makes clear that the government knows what the facts show: that a rule allowing employers to pocket their employees’ tips will rob working people of billions of dollars. The Economic Policy Institute, which conducted the type of analysis that DOL covered up, estimates that tipped workers will lose $5.8 billion dollars in tips each year if DOL’s proposed rule goes into effect. And working women would bear $4.6 billion—nearly 80 percent—of this loss.
“Once again, the Trump Administration has attempted to rewrite reality in an effort to shift even greater power and wealth to employers at the expense of working people, especially women. The Department of Labor should immediately withdraw this proposed rule.”
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For immediate release: February 1, 2018
Contact: Maria Patrick ([email protected]) or Olympia Feil ([email protected])