Supporters See Wage Question As “Critical Women’s Rights Issue”
OCT. 16, 2024…..The governor will vote against two ballot questions, is still making up her mind on two others and isn’t going to say how she plans to vote on the proposal to expand the powers of a fellow constitutional officer.
Gov. Maura Healey gave a rundown of her ballot Wednesday during her monthly hour on GBH Radio’s “Boston Public Radio” program with co-hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan. The Democrat would not say how she will vote on Question 1 to give Auditor Diana DiZoglio authority to audit the state Legislature and said she is still “reviewing” Questions 3 and 4, respectively related to app-based driver unionization and the legalization of some pyschedelic drugs.
Healey said she’s going to fill the ‘no’ oval on Question 2 to eliminate the use of the MCAS test as a graduation requirement and Question 5 to phase out the subminimum tipped wage. The governor, a former waitress at diner, the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom and “nicer places in the evenings,” said Wednesday that she feels “really strongly” about her opposition to Question 5.
“I actually oppose it, because, look, I waitressed on and off from the time I was 13 to 24,” Healey said, leading Braude to ask if she was a good waitress. “I got a lot of tips. I think I did a pretty good job. I hustled.”
The governor said she thinks Question 5 “is a well-intentioned effort brought by out-of-state interests.”
The national One Fair Wage group, which is leading the ballot question campaign here, is also behind similar efforts in other states. Earlier this year, the head of the Mass. Restaurant Association criticized the ballot effort as an idea “brought from activists in California.” The head of the national group has said it got involved here at the request of Massachusetts employees, who reached out and sought help building a campaign.
“I think it’s important to vote ‘no’ on this,” Healey said. “Because I think you run the risk of closing restaurants and putting these workers out of work, actually. Because the restaurant owners I speak [to] are not going to be able to afford this, and they’re going to end up laying off people. In some instances, some have told me they’re just going to shut down.”
Tipped workers currently earn an hourly minimum wage of $6.75, and employers are required to pay them the difference if they do not make enough in customer tips to reach the state’s $15 hourly minimum wage. Question 5 would eliminate that structure over a five-year period by gradually raising the minimum wage for tipped workers to $15 an hour, and would give restaurant owners the option to create tip pools, in which waiters and bartenders share tips with back-of-the-house workers.
The Yes on 5 campaign promoted an event Wednesday afternoon with Harvard Law School Professor Catharine MacKinnon on the ways sexual harassment affects tipped workers. The campaign said the event is part of its “broader effort to underscore Question 5 as a critical women’s rights issue, and it coincides with the release of a new digital ad featuring Kamala Harris’ support for eliminating the subminimum wage and tackling the pervasive problem of sexual harassment in tipped industries.”
It’s a topic that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton raised when she weighed in for Question 5.
“You know, I had a short experience living on tips when I was a law school student, but there are people in Massachusetts who have lived on tips for decades,” Clinton said in her endorsement video. “Tipped workers are mostly women, and they’re working hard not to make a living, but to overcome the harassment and economic barriers that stand in their way. Women have a lot on the line in this election. Vice President Harris has endorsed requiring restaurants to pay the full minimum wage with tips on top, while former President Trump has tried to take tips away from workers. So please, stand with working women, stand with Vice President Harris and all service workers—vote yes on November 5 on Question 5.”
Healey suggested Wednesday that people who are still undecided on Question 5 should talk to servers and bartenders at their favorite establishments. Public polling on the question has been all over the map. Three different surveys over the last month have shown the ‘yes’ side with a razor-thin lead, a significant deficit, and then a potential blowout victory.
The governor’s opposition to the question puts her on the same side of the issue as the Massachusetts Republican Party, and at odds with groups like Progressive Mass., MassVOTE, MA Voter Table, and with other Democrats including Clinton and U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley.
“As the attorney general, I fought hard for workplace protections, for fair wages, for benefits, for all that. So I am certainly in this camp, but I think this actually harms that effort,” Healey said. “And that’s why I feel really strongly about about this particular question.”
Healey made clear on GBH Wednesday that she plans to cast a vote on Question 1, which would give the state auditor the explicit authority to audit the House and Senate, but the governor declined several opportunities to say how she will vote on that question, which has enjoyed support in public opinion polls but is more controversial on Beacon Hill where Healey works with the Legislature.
“I’ll leave that to the voters,” she said.
Braude followed up and Healey confirmed that she is going to vote on the matter.
DiZoglio has been pushing since her time as a candidate for her office to be able to audit the House and Senate despite objections from top Democrats that doing so would violate constitutional separation of powers. She and her allies opted to pursue a ballot question explicitly granting the auditor’s office that ability after their other attempts failed to gain traction.
House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka — the two people who largely control the fate of Healey’s legislative agenda — are firmly opposed to the notion of an audit by DiZoglio’s office and claim DiZoglio is driven by political motives following her time in the House and Senate, when she often publicly criticized legislative leadership.
“That one I’m going to leave to the voters,” the governor said when Braude followed up.
