Committee advances Rep. Cuddy bill to protect service employees from wage theft

The threshold for being considered a tipped employee has not been significantly increased in over 50 years.

While the law currently requires employers to supplement the base wage if, after tips, an employee’s wage doesn’t meet the current minimum wage of $12.15 per hour, the Maine Center for Economic Policy found in a 2019 survey that approximately 15,000 Maine workers had experienced wage theft the previous year through an employer failing to ensure minimum wage for tipped employees, according to a news release.

Click here to read the full story, first published May 10, 2021, in the Penobscot Bay Pilot.