Tom Harkin: “I thank the Senator for allowing me a few more minutes. The point being, if we look at all tipped workers in States with…”

“I thank the Senator for allowing me a few more minutes. The point being, if we look at all tipped workers in States with a $2.13 minimum wage, the poverty rate is 16.1 percent. Where a State has a minimum wage the same for tipped and not tipped, the poverty rate is 12.1 percent. We also hear that job growth will be lost if we increase the minimum wage. Well, again, we have done some data-taking. If we look at tipped restaurant worker job growth, just from 2009 to 2012, in States that have a $2.13 minimum wage--tipped wage, the same as Federal--the job growth among restaurant workers has been 2 percent. In a State that has a minimum wage for tipped workers the same as everybody else, the job growth has been twice as much--4 percent. This is just among tipped restaurant workers. Look over here at sales per capita in restaurants. This is sales per capita in the State. In those States with a $2.13 minimum wage, $1.42 per capita; in States with a full minimum wage, $1.68 per capita. That is why economists are saying raising the minimum wage and raising the tipped minimum wage is good for the economy. It increases aggregate demand. People say: Why would this job growth be more? Why would the sales be more in a State with a higher minimum wage for restaurant workers? Easy. If the restaurant workers themselves are making enough money to go out and eat or to do other things, they increase the wages for all of the other restaurant workers in the State. That is true.…”