June 1, 2019

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Walked Into a Bar…And Poured Scorn on the Minimum Wage

The ex-bartender serves up soundbites on low wages for restaurant workers.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) at the Queensboro Restaurant in QueensDrew Angerer/Getty

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When was the last time your bartender talked to you about the need for a fair wage or about the exploitation of tipped workers? Well, if you were at the Queensboro Restaurant in Jackson Heights last night, you sure would have gotten an earful from the 29-year-old behind the bar. 

Wearing a blue and gray apron, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) mixed drinks and served tables for an hour last night to show support for the Raise The Wage Act, which would gradually boost the federal minimum wage for tipped workers.

“The federal tipped minimum wage is $2.13 an hour—that is unacceptable!” Ocasio-Cortez, a former bartender, said. From behind the bar, she told patrons and supporters that any job that pays that rate is “indentured servitude.”

Ocasio-Cortez delivered pizzas to hungry customers and showed her skills with a shaker behind the bar, chatting about the need to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers to $15 an hour. The restaurant was packed with people taking selfies and posting videos of the congressional freshman and internet celebrity. 

And she wasn’t the only politician hanging out at a bar on a Friday evening. Former President Barack Obama met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a brewery in Ottawa, Canada. Let’s hope that they left a nice tip for their bartenders—who already get a minimum wage of about $10 an hour. 

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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