People in Industry AOC's Trying To 'Help' Are Desperate To Stop Her Leftist Ideas
The youngest member of Congress sure seems to think she knows what is best for everyone in America, but people who actually work in an industry she is trying to dramatically change have a message for her: Stop helping us.
On Friday, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went back to what she does best: Making mediocre drinks. As part of an event to push a $15-per-hour minimum wage in New York and apply the universal wage to servers and bartenders, AOC stepped behind a bar in Queens, New York, to whip up some cocktails while reporters looked on.
Ocasio-Cortez, as you probably know, made a big deal about being just a “normal girl from the Bronx” before pulling off an upset election victory in her Democrat-heavy district. Her bartending background was a big part of that persona, but now some people with the very same job are sounding the alarm about her one-wage-fits-all plans.
I was nervous that I may have lost my touch – still got it! That muscle memory doesn’t quit ?
Now let’s pass #RaiseTheWage and get $15 an hour minimum for every worker in America. pic.twitter.com/FR0ARUB7bd
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 31, 2019
“Servers and bartenders in the Washington, D.C., restaurant industry were quick to criticize New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for supporting the One Fair Wage campaign, which calls to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers to a full minimum wage at the federal level,” The Daily Caller reported.
Minimum wages in New York are set to be $15 per hour by the end of the year, while tipped employees will make $7.50. But those tips make a big impact, and a good bartender or server can do very well on a busy night, more than making up the difference.
“If employees’ tips fall short of this mark, employers are legally required to make up the difference,” The New York Post reported. “This is rarely a problem; federal data show that tipped employees in New York report earning $17 an hour upstate and $20 an hour in New York City.”
The Post also noted that a 2015 New York City Hospitality Alliance report found an even higher median hourly rate of $25 per hour when tips are included.
But AOC doesn’t like that.
“Ocasio-Cortez went to a bar in Queens, New York, on Friday to raise awareness for an initiative that was put forward by Restaurant Opportunity Center United (ROC), a government-funded group that claims, if the measure passed, tipped workers would all be paid the same amount, regardless of effort or seniority,” The Daily Caller reported.
Ah yes, AOC’s socialist visions may be coming to a bar near you. Anyone who enjoys a drink or two knows that not all bartenders are equal. Some are masters of custom cocktails and conversation, while others struggle to make a dirty martini and are even worse at small talk. But mixologists and servers earning tips based on how well they actually do their jobs could be disappearing, at least if the congresswoman gets her way.
“[R]ealistically from a business standpoint, it’s horrible,” Washington D.C. area bartender Decker Beasley told Daily Caller. “We are automatically making businesses pay 1/3 more than what are already paying. And that’s all about how much labor costs.”
It’s a good point. Patrons are almost certainly going to tip less if they know that servers are making full wages, while the extra money has to come from somewhere. In most cases, it will mean either the expenses will get passed on to consumers in the form of higher food and drink prices, or fewer servers can be hired.
According to Travis Weiss, the director of culinary concepts at Rebellion DC, there were no tipped employees at Ocasio-Cortez’s event.
“[Ocasio-Cortez] is hack and a disgrace,” Weiss told The Daily Caller. “An ROC-sponsored, invite-only event where no ACTUAL tipped employees were present shows you the depth of her concern for the real workers.”
How’s this for irony: A restaurant where Ocasio-Cortez herself used to work was forced to close last year. The reason? Skyrocketing minimum wages.
“The owners of Flats Fix taco bar also owned the iconic Coffee Shop diner in Union Square; AOC worked at both,” the New York Post reported. “In October 2018, Coffee Shop closed its doors, with the owners citing New York’s rapidly rising minimum wage as a determining factor.”
Statistics show that AOC’s old employer isn’t the only one feeling the squeeze from the very far-left policies she’s now advocating.
“[New York City] in 2018 experienced its first year of negative full-service employment growth in nearly two decades,” the New York Post reported. “A survey of city restaurateurs by the New York City Hospitality Alliance found that 36% slashed jobs last year.”
Ocasio-Cortez has already made her mark on New York by helping drive some 25,000 jobs out of her own state and then bragging about it. She may be posed to do the same with the restaurant industry unless voters wake up and say something.
This is the reality of “Democratic socialism.” Everyone gets pulled to the same level of mediocrity — or misery — and individual excellence can never, ever be rewarded. Now, who else needs a drink?
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