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Donald Trump made a big production out of not taxing tips while campaigning for president in 2024. The message seemed to resonate with voters as Trump won a close election by a slim margin.
The reality of Trump’s governance has come into stark view as a new report from One Fair Wage found that at least 1.2 million restaurant workers will lose their health insurance due to Republican cuts in Medicaid.
According to One Fair Wage’s report:
33 percent of tipped restaurant workers in fair wage states received Medicaid and 37 percent of tipped restaurant workers in subminimum wage states received Medicaid. The survey found 32 percent of tipped restaurant workers in fair wage states and 34 percent of tipped restaurant workers in subminimum wage states had no health insurance.
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To determine how many workers may be affected by the requirement to work 80 hours per month to receive Medicaid, One Fair Wage analyzed restaurant and tipped worker hourly Census data to see what percentage reported to have worked less than 21 hours a week. OFW found that 30 percent of tipped workers and 32 percent of restaurant workers work less than 21 hours a week. This would indicate that approximately an additional 850,000 workers would lose Medicaid benefits. This would be a combined total of 1.22 million workers. This would mean that possibly 45 percent of current Medicaid enrollees in tipped and restaurant occupations stand to lose this insurance.
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The current Congressional budget reconciliation bill both cuts Medicaid benefits for millions and offers ‘No Tax on Tips’ for tipped workers, as an apparent offering to tipped workers. However One Fair Wage has found that as many as 66 percent of tipped workers would not benefit from a ‘No Tax on Tips’ bill. Since the proposed ‘No Tax on Tips’ legislation only benefits tipped workers in traditionally tipped positions within the food service industry, only approximately 1.17 million workers would see a tax break. That is 50,000 fewer workers than would lose Medicaid under the current proposal.
In other words, No Taxes On Tips has become No Healthcare For Workers. Two-thirds of tipped workers will not benefit from the change, and many of them will lose their health insurance.
Trump campaigned on cutting your taxes. Instead, he is stealing your healthcare, which sums up the bait and switch that Trump pulled and why so many Americans are angry at this administration today.
What do you think about what Republicans are doing to restaurant workers? Share your thoughts in the comments below.