Ninety percent of female servers are not paid enough to afford housing, utilities, food, transportation, child care, health care, and emergency and retirement savings, according to the 2012 Basic Economic Security Index. This compares to 75 percent of male servers who cannot afford basic needs. Servers have trouble making ends meet because of a federal provision that established a sub-minimum wage for tipped workers at $2.15 per hour, or $4,333 a year for full-time work. Forty-five states have slightly raised sub-minimum wages. The federal full minimum wage is $7.25 per hour or about $15,000 a year.

Restaurant Opportunities Centers, a national nonprofit restaurant worker organization, wants to raise the federal minimum wage for tipped workers to 70 percent of the regular minimum wage. The sub-minimum wage has remained the same since 1991. Gender inequality is also widespread among restaurant workers; female workers averaged $1.53 per hour less than male restaurant workers in 2009, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

This is another example of the need to pass the Fair Wage Act.  Keep your eye out for developments in this area.