Send Albany’s restaurant tipping rule back to the kitchen

Albany’s drive for fake economic equity may be poised to claim yet another victim: restaurants. 

A legislative push to end the tips credit — the rule that lets owners pay wait staff who earn tips less than the minimum wage — has met with massive opposition from people who actually know how the business works. 

That is, the owners themselves: 95% of them oppose the push from Assemblywoman Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas (D-Queens) and Sen. Robert Jackson (D-Manhattan), per a survey released Monday.

Why is it a bad idea? Well, Washington, DC, implemented a similar scheme in May. 

The result?

A shocking 4.4% cut to the overall workforce. 

That’s at least 1,300 jobs gone. 

Naturally, our progressive economic masterminds want to replicate that stunning success. 

Even as the city economy continues to lag the nation’s with a 5.4% unemployment rate vs. a national rate of 3.7%. 

The state’s as a whole is 4.5%. 

This is precisely not the moment, in other words, to introduce new hurdles for small business owners. 

Restaurants are a risky business to begin with: Some 30% fail within the first year of operation. 

More than half of restaurateurs surveyed said the new law would make them consider closing entirely. 

The tipping-based model lets labor costs stay low so the business can stay open, doubly important in sky-high minimum-wage New York. 

But remember, it’s not just owners who’ll be hurt. 

It’s workers too. 

Wait staff jobs provide great, well-paying opportunities for college kids, people without degrees and other Americans who want to work but lack credentials and connections. 

And don’t forget that like all laws and regulations that jack up the cost of doing business, it will hit the small guys hardest. 

Love the little ramen place on your corner? 

Get ready to bid it farewell. 

If you want to live in a New York City and state where the only restaurants open are ultra-high-end spots and TGIFs, this law deserves your full support. 

Otherwise? 

Send it back to the kitchen.