Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has made unlikely enemies: Minimum wage workers.
According to reports, while Ocasio-Cortez is lecturing Americans about paying more in taxes to guarantee higher pay, she’s not practicing what she preaches.
Waiters and waitresses in Washington, D.C. told The Daily Caller that while Ocasio-Cortez is supporting minimum wage hikes for tipped workers, she has a reputation for skipping out on tips herself — and she refuses to answer questions about how her policies could effect their livelyhood.
Last Friday, Ocasio-Cortez guest bartended at an awareness event by the Resturant Opportunity Center United (ROC), a group that is behind the “One Fair Wage” campaign. The campaign’s goal, ROC says, is to make sure all tipped workers are paid the same, regardless of skill or seniority.
Critics pointed out that there weren’t any tips given out to the workers at Ocasio-Cortez’ event.
And according to Travis Weiss, the director of culinary concepts at Rebellion DC, this is proof that Ocasio-Cortez is ignoring the real issues.
“She is a hack and a disgrace,” Weiss told The Daily Caller. “An ROC-sponsored, invite-only event — where no ACTUAL tipped employees were present — shows you the depth of her concern for the real workers.”
Other bartenders and servers were upset that Ocasio-Cortez refused the public entry into her event.
“They didn’t let anyone who didn’t agree with their ideology come through. They’d only invite to people who already supported them, and they had no interest in actually discussing the policy with people that would be directly affected by it,” Zac Hoffman, a bartender in Washington, D.C., told The Caller.
ROC defended their closed-door policy. The group claims it was unsafe to let the public into their private party.
“For safety reasons, we did not allow walk-in customers,” Anthony Advincula, a public affairs officer for ROC said. “The restaurant owners invited several customers to be at that event and they are real customers — so those are real regular customers for the restaurant. They were regular customers of the restaurant.”
Back in New York City, Ocasio-Cortez’ former boss was upset by her policies.
Charles Milite, the co-founder of the Coffee Shop — where Ocasio-Cortez once worked — has blamed similar increases in the minimum wage in New York for his business’ closure last year. He was forced to fire 130 of Ocasio-Cortez’ former coworkers in August 2018.
“I know it doesn’t sound like much — $2 an hour,” Milite said last year. “But when you multiply it by 40 hours, by 130 people, it becomes a big number. It was going to increase our monthly payroll $46,000.”
Before the government-mandated minimum wages closed Milite’s business, The Coffee Shop had been a staple in the neighborhood for 28 years.
While Ocasio-Cortez lives it up in a luxury apartment in Washington, D.C., her policies have driven her former coworkers and bosses out of a job.
Now that she has her own employees, she doesn’t want to tip them during big fundraising events.
And she doesn’t feel safe enough to let those workers question her about it?
Ocasio-Cortez is FINISHED thanks to THIS brutal video (ouch!)
The Horn editorial team