Baltimore Mayor Scott serves up meals, brings focus on higher wages for restaurant servers

BALTIMORE -- Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott served the city in a different way Monday, this time taking orders during one of the most important times of the day -- lunchtime.

Mayor Scott took part in a Server for an Hour event at Busboys & Poets to support a higher-wage restaurant and other tipped workers.

After a quick training, he went back and forth grabbing orders for food, drinks and bringing it all out himself.

The event was put on by the non-profit One Fair Wage, which is trying to eliminate the subminimum wage these workers are paid. In Maryland, the sub-minimum wage is $3.63 an hour.

Living on this wage is something Ifeoma Ezimako knows too well. 

She worked in the service industry for more than 15 years, getting out of it during the pandemic. She's now a field organizer for One Fair Wage.

She adds the majority of these workers are women and people of color, citing U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

"I worked my way through college and I didn't know that I was receiving a subminimum wage. I just thought that was bar culture," Ezimako said. "I just thought, OK, we're getting paid tips. I didn't understand it was a legacy of slavery."

One Fair Wage will be pushing for legislation to pass next year. Mayor Scott said this kind of thing is overdue.

"In the richest state, in the richest country in the history of the world, our [tipped workers] shouldn't have to depend on kindness from other people. We can afford to pay one fair wage and we should pay one fair wage," Mayor Scott said.

If legislation were to pass, Maryland would be the ninth state in the country to eliminate the subminimum wage for tipped workers.