Dear Representative:
On behalf of the 15 million workers and 64 affiliate unions represented by the AFL-CIO, I urge you to oppose the following anti-worker bills scheduled for consideration on the House floor this week: the Flexibility for Workers Education Act (H.R. 2262), the Empowering Employer Child and Elder Care Solutions Act (H.R. 2270), and the Tipped Employee Protection Act (H.R. 2312).
H.R. 2262, Flexibility for Workers Education Act, would let employers require workers to attend job-related training without paying them for that time. The bill allows employers to label training as “voluntary,” even when workers feel pressured to attend to keep their jobs or advance, and removes current protections that ensure training closely tied to a worker’s job is paid. As a result, employers could push essential training outside of regular work hours and off the clock, increasing unpaid work for low-wage workers.
H.R. 2270, Empowering Employer Child and Elder Care Solutions Act, would exclude from the calculation of an employee's regular wage rate any employer reimbursement for child or elder care when calculating an employee’s overtime rate of pay. Under this bill, employees who receive these reimbursements would see their overtime wage rate cut. Reducing a worker's overtime earnings will not help them afford the cost of child or elder care. Instead, it will make life harder. And there is no evidence that reducing the overtime rate for employees will spur a widespread willingness of employers to offer reimbursement for child or elder care. Workers need both decent wages and access to affordable child and elder care. There are ways to achieve the latter without attacking the former.
H.R. 2312, the Tipped Employee Protection Act, would change federal wage law in a way that makes pay more unstable for many low-wage workers by allowing employers to treat almost any worker as a “tipped employee” if they receive even small or occasional tips over a time period the employer chooses, whether that is a single day or an entire month. This could allow employers to pay the tipped subminimum wage to workers such as baristas, hotel staff, delivery drivers, salon workers, stadium staff, and other service workers who do not regularly earn tips. For example, a worker who waits tables would be paid the full minimum wage for non-tipped cooking shifts, but under this bill the employer could average tips earned earlier in the week and use them to justify paying $2.13 an hour for cooking shifts as well, which would cut weekly pay. By weakening existing rules that limit when the tip credit can be used, the bill would result in reduced take-home pay for workers, give employers greater control over how workers are classified and paid, make it harder for workers to know if they are being paid correctly, and increase the risk of wage theft in industries where it is already common.
Collectively, these bills nickel and dime workers’ pay at a time when so many struggle to afford the basics. Wages should be raised, not cut. Please vote no on H.R. 2262, H.R. 2270, and H.R. 2312.
Sincerely,
Jody Calemine
Director, Government Affairs