Amid Pennsylvania minimum wage debate, a push to boost rate of $2.83 an hour for tipped workers

By: Lindsay Weber

HARRISBURG — Across the Lehigh Valley and the state, hiring signs offer pay well over the much-discussed minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, even as the set “wage” for plenty of people is a good bit less — $2.83 an hour — because they also collect tips.

Those people being paid “tipped minimum wage” are on the mind of Sen. Christine Tartaglione, D-Philadelphia, who has filed bills to make changes. But while there is broad support for raising the tipped minimum wage — often paid to restaurant servers and other food service industry employees — the question is by how much, and should there even be a separate tipped wage in the first place?

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