The ballot measures in Arizona and Massachusetts reflect an accelerating debate over the so-called subminimum wage.

The federal government is expected to boost the minimum hourly wage that must be paid to temporary foreign workers in the high-wage stream as a way to encourage employers to hire more Canadian staff.

Voters in Arizona and Massachusetts are set to decide whether employers should be able to continue to pay tipped workers such as servers and bartenders a lower minimum wage than non-tipped workers.

Question 5 would require that all tipped employees in Massachusetts earn at least $15 an hour before tips, by 2029. The current system allows some workers — servers, bartenders, and hairdressers among them — to be paid $6.75 an hour, provided that tips make up the difference.

Federal labor law allows businesses to pay tipped workers, like food servers, bartenders and bellhops, less than the minimum wage as long as customer tips make up the difference.

The issue disproportionately affects women, who make up about 47% of the U.S. workforce but nearly 70% of those who work in tipped professions.

You have no security when it comes to knowing how much you’re going to make.” That uncertainty exists largely because federal labor law allows businesses to pay tipped workers, like food servers, bartenders and bellhops,

Mel Nichols, a 37-year-old bartender in Phoenix, Arizona, takes home anywhere from $30 to $50 an hour with tips included.