Senate kills bill to include tips in minimum wage

HELENA – The state Senate voted 29-21 today to reject a bill that would have allowed employers to include tips in any future minimum wage they pay their workers.

Senate Bill 253’s sponsor, Sen. Donald Steinbeisser, R-Sidney, said the measure would help Montana's struggling restaurant industry get back on its feet.

“The restaurant people are in trouble,” Steinbeisser told the Senate before the vote. “Is it better to have a job with a little bit less tips or to not have a job at all?”

The bill would have allowed employers to count tips toward the minimum wage but only after that wage tops $6.90 an hour. The minimum wage, which is tied to the national inflation index, is scheduled to increase to $7.25 an hour in July.

Supporters of the bill included the owners and managers of many Montana restaurants and other small businesses.

Opponents to the bill said it would penalize the poorest of the poor in Montana for doing their job well.

Sen. Ryan Zinke, R-Whitefish, said the state has many different levels of tip-income and the bill would hurt workers in rural areas. He said the restaurant industry may be in trouble, but the problem lies in unemployment benefits and worker’s compensation, not with the tipped employees.

“I don’t think this bill fixes the problem,” Zinke said.

Attorney General Steve Bullock, who worked to pass the 2006 initiative that raised the minimum wage and tied increases to inflation, held a press conference Tuesday to rally opposition to the bill. He cited the 73 percent of Montana voters who approved the measure.

“The legislation is taking the first step to gut the popular will of what three out of four Montanans have said,” Bullock said. “Their voice isn’t being heard in the halls of this building.”

Bullock said the economy is certainly suffering but it should not be fixed by taking money away from the poorest people in the state.

“We need to make sure we’re watching out for the little fellers, not just the Rockefellers,” Bullock said.

All of the Democratic senators voted against the bill. The six Republican senators to vote against it were Sens. Taylor Brown of Billings, John Brueggeman of Polson, Rick Laible of Darby, Dave Lewis of Helena, Terry Murphy of Cardwell and Ryan Zinke of Whitefish.

- by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy