The workers win one

Seventy thousand New York workers just got a fairer deal. Thank a state wage board appointed by Gov. Cuomo’s secretary of labor. The bedrock principle behind minimum-wage laws, which are in the process of boosting fortunes at the bottom of the income scale in states across America, is that all working people deserve subsistence-level earnings. Yet laws simultaneously allow some employers to pay sub-minimum wages to their workers on the assumption that they pocket tips that put them over the threshold. (If and when they don’t, their employers are supposed to make up the difference.)

For some restaurant workers, the tradeoff might make sense. But there’s no question it has long been a rotten arrangement for thousands of workers in car washes, nail salons, parking garages and airports. Customers

don’t realize their nail salon technician or car wash attendant counts on tips to survive.

And while everyone’s supposed to take home at least the statutory minimum even when tips don’t materialize, in practice the confusing rules often fail to be enforced, with immigrants in particular believing they have no recourse to complain.

Today’s big victory raises tomorrow’s burning question: Should restaurants, the industry most synonymous with tipped workers, be forced to pay everyone, including waitstaff, $15 an hour? That labor pool, north of 300,000 New Yorkers, includes more than a few workers who fear that ending the tip credit will dry up tips and drive down wages.

Let the wage board continue its research, balancing conflicting evidence — and show its work when it issues a final rule.