Swing-State Democrat Introduces Trump-Inspired ‘No Tip Tax’ Bill in Congress

LAS VEGAS — A swing-state Democrat has taken on Donald Trump’s “No Tax on Tips” idea, with Rep. Steven Horsford introducing a bill that would give a federal tax credit to tipped workers making less than $112,500 a year.

The Tipped Income Protection and Improvement Act, or TIPS Act, provides a tax break to qualifying workers in the beauty, hotel and restaurant industries, parking lot attendants and janitorial workers.

Asked whether the rules would apply to dealers in Nevada casinos — or prostitutes in legal brothels in the Silver State — a Horsford spokesman told The Post: “Hospitality is a very broad category that would encompass a lot of workers in Nevada.”

Horsford said his bill would also eliminate the “subminimum wage” for tipped workers by forcing employers to pay both the federal minimum wage and pass on tips. Nevada is one of seven states where tipped workers receive the state minimum wage — which increased to $12 an hour in July — along with their tips.

The lawmaker, chairman of the influential group Congressional Black Caucus, said at a news conference Tuesday that his measure would benefit economically disadvantaged people.

“A disproportionate number of the 6 million tipped workers, women and people of color, earn just $2.13 an hour, which is truly starvation wages at a time when families and workers are struggling to meet the cost of living,” Horsford said. “I am leading the charge to close the racial wealth gap, and we can no longer tolerate inequality in pay for tipped workers.”

Not everyone agrees with the Democrat’s argument. Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) chaired a House Education and Workforce subcommittee on tips Wednesday, where he defended the status quo.

“The current system gives tipped workers a chance to advance, which not only helps them but also the restaurants and small businesses that employ them,” Kiley said.

Kiley also cited a National Restaurant Association study that found the median pay for a tipped worker is $27 an hour, which he said is well above the federal minimum wage.

Meanwhile, more than 100 Michigan waiters and bartenders rallied at the state capitol Wednesday to stop the Wolverine State’s upcoming minimum wage change, which would eliminate the lower minimum wage. Local reports quoted workers saying the state’s proposed minimum wage hike for tipped workers could raise prices at restaurants and actually lower their wages.

Saru Jayaraman, a labor advocate who heads One Fair Wage, a group that advocates for the repeal of the lower minimum wage for tipped workers, told the House of Representatives that the seven states that require the full minimum wage for tipped workers show tipped wages “the same as or higher than the 43 states that have subminimum wages for tipped workers.”

The advocate, who is also director of the Center for Food Labor Research at the University of California, Berkeley, previously supported Horsford’s bill, which also won the backing of Culinary Workers Local 226, a Las Vegas union representing thousands of tipped workers.

Horsford, in a November re-election battle against former North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee for the 4th Congressional District seat, previously co-sponsored the GOP tip tax-free bill that was released after Trump’s June 9 announcement from Las Vegas that his next administration would not tax tip income.

“These workers should not have to pay tax twice, once on wages and again on tips,” said the incumbent lawmaker, who is seeking a fifth term in the House of Representatives.

Under the terms of the Horsford Act, employees would receive a deduction “equal to the amount of qualified tips received” in the tax year. “Qualified tips” are those received from an independent party who has no ownership interest in the employing business and that arise from the employee’s regular employment in which tips are customarily accepted.

From reading the language of the bill, it appears that tips will still be subject to the FICA tax, which funds the Social Security and Medicare programs.

In a previous interview with The Post, Horsford’s Republican rival — a former Democrat — praised the proposed “No Tax on Tips” tax break as “great” but said the credit did not belong to Horsford.

“It was never his idea,” he said.