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2003 General Session
HB 257 would have raised the minimum wage for tipped employees in Wyoming from the present $2.13 per hour to $4.00 per hour.
A tipped employee is defined as one who regularly receives more than $30.00 a month in tips.
Under Wyoming statutes, if the minimum wage paid by the employer, combined with tips received by the employee during a given pay period, does not at least equal the current minimum wage of $5.15 per hour, the employer is required to pay the difference to the tipped employee.
Proponents of HB 257 pointed out that tipped employees are among the lowest paid of Wyoming workers, and that employers often do not meet the statutory requirement to make up the difference when tipped employees don't make a total of $5.15 an hour. Proponents testified that employers frequently do not explain this right to their workers, and that tipped employees often don't know their employers are supposed to do this. They also maintained that some tipped employees, even when they do know they are entitled to a total minimum wage of $5.15 an hour, are too intimidated and afraid of losing their job to request that their employer make up the difference to meet the minimum wage.
Opponents of the bill claimed it would place an undue burden on small business owners if they had to pay their tipped employees more than $2.13 an hour.
HB 257 died in the House Labor, Health and Social Services Committee without a recorded vote.