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Currently, only seven states have eliminated the subminimum wage for tipped employees: Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

The association has spent decades fighting increases to the minimum wage at the federal and state levels, as well as the subminimum wage paid to tipped workers like waiters.

Seeing his boss’ house at his first job and how little he himself was being paid — making “subminimum wage” — “catalyzed something in me,” he said.

In the District of Columbia, a measure on the November ballot would ban the subminimum wage by 2027.

In all but eight states, employers can legally choose to pay workers who receive tips a “subminimum” wage — in some places as low as $2.13 an hour — as long as tips bring their earnings to the equivalent of the minimum wage in a pay period.