Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez poured drinks and waited tables at a Queens restaurant to promote a minimum wage law

JEENAH MOON/Reuters

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks at an April press conference in Queens, New York.

• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York took up bartending again, for a day at least. 
• The 29-year-old former bartender poured a few drinks and waited a few tables at a restaurant in Jackson Heights, Queens - a neighborhood in her district on Friday to promote two laws that would boost wages.
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got back to her bartending roots on Friday.

The 29-year-old Bronx native poured a few drinks and waited a few tables at a restaurant in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens during an event organized by Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United.

Ocasio-Cortez is attempting to build support for the federal Raise the Wage Act, which would double the minimum wage by 2024, as well as New York State's One Fair Wage, which would mandate that tipped workers are paid at least the minimum wage.

In many states across the country, including New York, tipped workers can be paid less than the minimum wage by their employers. Tipped workers are disproportionately women and people of color, and critics say the policy encourages wage theft and makes workers more vulnerable to sexual harassment on the job.

Ocasio-Cortez worked as a bartender at a Manhattan taqueria up until early spring of 2018 - just a few months before she shocked the political world by winning her insurgent primary bid against longtime House incumbent Joe Crowley.