 Two dollars and thirteen cents an hour, and that's how much millions of American workers are paid under the federal sub-minimum wage for tipped workers, which was set all the way back in 1991. While many think tipping for services has gotten out of control. No ma'am, we are not tipping at the Starbucks drive-thru. Arguing over who deserves a tip and how much they should get distracts from what we really should be angry about. Bonus models that depend on not paying workers a living wage. It's bad enough that the federal minimum wage is a measly $7.25 an hour. But employers are allowed to pay tipped workers just $2.13 an hour because supposedly those workers will be able to make up for it in tips. Saru Jayaraman of One Fair Wage has been advocating to change this absurd and exploitative law. I asked her to share with us four big reasons why we need to get rid of the sub-minimum wage and pay service workers a full living wage with tips on top. Number one, tipped workers who earn a sub-minimum wage often end up making less than minimum wage even with tips. Forty-three states currently allow tipped workers to be paid a sub-minimum wage. Employers in these states are legally required to make up the difference if a workers combined wage and tips don't reach the full minimum wage. But over a third of tipped workers report that their bosses regularly fail to do this. Number two, the sub-minimum wage perpetuates gender discrimination and sexual harassment on the job. More than two-thirds of tipped workers, actually 70% in the United States, are women. And one in six women that work a tipped job are living in poverty. That's nearly 2.5 times the rate for workers overall. Since workers earning the sub-minimum wage are so dependent on tips to make a living, they're often put in situations where they have to tolerate inappropriate customer behavior. A staggering 76%, that's more than three-quarters of tipped workers, have reported experiencing sexual harassment on the job. But in states that require a full minimum wage with tips on top, sexual harassment is cut in half because workers are not as dependent on customers for their income. Number three, replacing wages with tips is a relic of slavery. Tipped workers are disproportionately people of color. And black service workers in particular consistently earn less, including tips, than their white counterparts. Look, this inequity of the sub-minimum wage is tied to America's history of structural racism. Following the Civil War, tipping was used as a racist solution by employers who didn't want to pay formerly enslaved black workers. So by allowing them to pay their workers just in tips, rather than a wage, employers were able to avoid directly paying black workers. Number four, paying workers a living wage plus tips is actually better for business and our economy. Tipped lobbyists, particularly for the restaurant industry, claim that paying workers a full minimum wage with tips on top will be devastating to businesses. But research shows these fears are completely overblown. So far, seven states have replaced their sub-minimum wage for tipped workers with a higher full minimum wage that still allows for tips on top. These seven states are actually faring better than the 43 other states, both in the number of restaurants and the number of people employed by restaurants. And take home pay for restaurant servers and bartenders in these states is 24% higher, almost a quarter higher than in states with a wage of just $2.13 an hour. Workers at restaurants that have scrapped their sub-minimum wages in favor of higher full minimum wages with tips on top are more productive, happier, and less likely to quit their jobs. This alone helps business owners cut employee turnover nearly in half. So not only have higher wage states been able to maintain their restaurant industries, but workers are more productive, getting paid more, and less likely to live in poverty. And when workers have more money, they spend more money, stimulating their local economies in the process. And here's the really exciting news. For the first time in 30 years, workers are winning on this issue in D.C., in Chicago, and soon in a dozen other states. The bottom line is that ending the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers is better. It's better for workers, it's better for business, it's better for our economy. And it's the right thing to do.