By Lori Kersey, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A national coalition will distribute funding to a handful of West Virginia restaurants that commit to raising wages for servers.
The High Roads Kitchen program will distribute $7,000 each to seven West Virginia restaurants that commit to scaling up wages for tipped workers to the state’s full minimum wage of $8.75.
The funding for the program will come from One Fair Wage, a national organization that aims to end low minimum wages.
In West Virginia, employers may pay tipped workers a rate $2.62 per hour or the federal rate of $2.13, if the employer has fewer than six employees.
Even before the coronavirus pandemic, workers struggled while making $2.13 an hour, said Ryan Frankenberry, director of West Virginia Working Families, who spoke on behalf of One Fair Wage…
