Restaurant owners are in an uproar over a bill that would require them to pay their wait staffs and bartenders the full minimum wage, even as two high-ranking legislators said Monday that the provision was erroneously included in broader legislation that seeks to raise the state’s minimum wage.
Despite hearing that, restaurateurs are gearing up to oppose the bill in a public hearing Tuesday — because the provision still exists in the bill.
“What do you believe?” Tim Adams, co-owner of J. Timothy’s Taverne in Plainville, said. “What you see on paper.”
Real or not, the proposal — and the shock waves it sent through the offices of restaurant owners Monday — is an illustration of just how highly charged the perpetual debate over Connecticut’s minimum wage laws has become.