Part Two of a discussion with Adam Barr and Maria Moreno of Restaurant Opportunities Center of the Bay Area (ROC the Bay) along with Tiffany joining in NYC.

This is where we really ***get into it***!!!
The federal minimum wage has been stuck at $2.13 an hour since 1991. People argue endlessly, passionately and in the name of all working people (somehow!) against raising it. 

Here we examine some common arguments, one by one:

• The "Getting rid of subminimum wage means getting rid of tips" line of confusion/misinformation propagated by people who should know better. 
• The "But I make so much damn money on tips, it's not necessary" trope, almost always coming from white men in higher end establishments in urban downtown areas coincidentally. 
• The "Restaurants will literally be destroyed" lie, spread by people who apparently have never been to, heard of or, or read about large parts of the US. 
• The "Prices will go up" fear mongering from folks who apparently haven't been paying attention to what prices do. 
• The "People will tip less" hysteria from people who apparently don't understand how people decide what to tip. (Hint, it's not by googling an area's minimum wage). 
• The "Well I know it works in California (or Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Montana, and Nevada) but it can't work (insert their state/region here) because...."  - which, actually, we couldn't find info on cuz people seem to just say it without giving reasons for it. (Please reach out if you have some! I'm eager to dig deeper!)

A lot of these arguments are perfectly illustrated in just this one infuriating WaPo oped from 2018 when the District was going through its own furious debate about the topic because of  Initiative 77. I could dedicate a whole episode to that bit of history, and may yet.

For more reading on the topic, check out The New Republic, the Economic Policy Institute, this chronicle article where an owner posits that he may just *gasp* have to make less, Eater on how we've been underpaying to dine out for years, this nerdy academic study, and then keep googling, and keep talking to people in equal treatment states, and keep reminding yourself that the practice itself is rooted in slavery, and that matters even today. 

You can listen to Part One of the discussion here, or wherever you subscribe.