Ruben Gallego Introduces Bill Protecting Strikers' Stipends from Taxation

Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) is introducing legislation protecting striking workers' stipends from federal taxation.

As Sen. Gallego explained, when workers go on strike, unions frequently have a strike fund set up to help compensate for lost wages, typically a few hundred dollars a week. However, these stipends are still considered taxable income.

Thus, the Tax Cut for Striking Workers Act excludes these stipends from taxpayers' gross income.

"When a worker goes on strike, they are making a massive sacrifice in order to fight for a better future," Sen. Gallego said in a statement. "The strike funds they receive are how they how they continue to pay the rent and put food on the table. To then be taxed on those funds is an extra hit striking workers just can't afford. My bill fixes that."

In June, the Arizona Senator introduced the Striking and Locked Out Workers Healthcare Protection Act. The bill prohibits employers from threatening to withdraw strikers from the company's healthcare benefits programs if they continue by adding the removal of healthcare benefits as a separate category of unfair labor practices. It also increases civil penalties for employers who engage in such practices.

The Tax Cut for Striking Workers Act also marks the latest piece of legislation Gallego has introduced that cuts taxes. In late August, he introduced the Lowering Electric Bills Act, which restores clean energy tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that were repealed in the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB).

At the beginning of September, he then introduced the You Earn It, You Keep It Act, which expands the Social Security payroll tax to covered earnings of $250,000 a year or more, thereby making Social Security income tax-free.

Finally, Gallego introduced the No Tax on Large Party Tips Act, ensuring that auto-gratuities and recommended tips like the kind restaurants put on the bill for large parties are untaxed.