FAIRMONT, W.Va. — U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito sat down with restaurants from across West Virginia last week to discuss how the Working Families Tax Cut Act will be helping them.
The cut, which is part of the One Big Beautiful Bill, extends tax benefits to working American families, such as no tax on tips and no tax on overtime.
Capito joined with National Restaurant Association for roundtable discussion, the West Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association and restaurants at Muriale’s Italian Kitchen in Fairmont last week to discuss the changes.
She says obviously no tax on tips will be huge for servers and hosts/hostesses, but no tax on overtime is just as beneficial.
“A lot of restaurants and those in the hospitality business rely on overtime workers to be able to bring the good business that they have. We learned from the owners of Muriale’s and the other restaurants that were there how important that is,” Capito said last week on MetroNews Midday.
Capito says restaurant owners are facing two particularly challenging issues.
“It’s challenging in the restaurant business,” Capito said. “The price of food has gone up. It’s stabilizing now, but it’s also a challenge to get workers. Anything we can do to help those working families that are either working overtime or getting tips really helps the restaurant business a lot.”
The estimation from the National Restaurant Association is that the policy could return up to $421 million to the pockets of restaurant workers across the country.
Capito says the money is going back to those who deserve and need it.
“It’s a good chunk of change and it’s going towards folks that, in many cases, are struggling to make ends meet. Whether it’s a car payment or childcare or your own obligations for your power bill. They don’t get the benefits of taking a lot of things off their taxes and itemizing and all these other benefits of a tax code that’s a complicated as ours,” said Capito.
“This really helps them and I think it’s important for retention of staff in many instances, but it’s also important for people to be able to balance their family lives and be able to realize more money that they’ve actually earned,” she said.