In Nevada this week, staff at the powerful Culinary Workers Union Local 226 pored through the latest draft text of the reconciliation bill to see a decades-long dream realized: a provision to eliminate federal taxes on income generated from tips.
“It’s surprising,” Ted Pappageorge, the local’s secretary-treasurer, told NOTUS. “There’s an opportunity here, if we can get this done right, to get some relief for tip earners.”
Taxes on tips were, ever so briefly, a main storyline of the 2024 election. Donald Trump went to Las Vegas in June and declared his support for eliminating them. Kamala Harris followed suit in August at her own stop in the city. The culinary union backed Harris, but also welcomed Trump’s support on the issue. Trump went on to win working-class voters.