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As the presidential campaign heats up, both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are courting the votes of service and hospitality workers by promising to eliminate the tip tax.

But the move would likely not help many tipped workers, especially because a significant portion of them do not earn enough to pay federal income taxes, experts say.

Neither Trump, who announced the idea at a Las Vegas rally in June, nor Harris, who voiced her support for the policy in Las Vegas on Saturday, have offered detailed proposals that must now pass Congress. Questions include how much tip income should remain tax-free, whether to add any protections against fraud and abuse, and whether to eliminate both federal income and payroll taxes.

Harris will combine her plan to eliminate taxes on tips with a push for a congressional minimum wage increase, a campaign official said. The proposal would also include an income cap and prevent hedge fund managers and lawyers from structuring their compensation to benefit from the rule. Tips would still be subject to payroll taxes.

Shortly after Trump promised to eliminate taxes on tips, Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas introduced a bill called the No Tax on Tips Act, which would allow workers to deduct tips paid in cash, check, credit card or debit card from federal income taxes. But it would not eliminate the payroll tax that funds Social Security and Medicare, which totals 15.3 percent, half of which is paid by employers.

The bill is supported by Democratic Senators Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto from Nevada, an important swing state where many residents work in the hospitality industry.

Other bills introduced in the House of Representatives contain other provisions, such as eliminating federal income and payroll taxes or setting a cap on tips that can be exempt from taxes.

According to Yale University’s Budget Lab, a policy research center, by 2023, about 4 million people will be working in tipped jobs, or about 2.5% of all employees. These include waiters, bartenders, drivers, food delivery workers, hairdressers, and hotel workers, among others. In recent years, more and more establishments, such as fast-food restaurants, have introduced the option to tip.

The federal minimum wage for tipped workers is $2.13 an hour, but they must earn at least the federal minimum hourly wage of $7.25 or their employers must make up the difference. Many states and localities have higher minimum wages and tipped minimum wages, while some states have eliminated lower minimum wages for tipped workers.

Tipped workers tend to be younger and lower paid. Their typical weekly wage in 2023 was $538, including tips, compared to $1,000 for non-tipped workers, according to Budget Lab.

That means many earn too little to pay federal income taxes — 37% of tipped workers fell into that category in 2022, Budget Lab found.

“If you don’t pay income tax now, it’s not going to help you much,” said Ernie Tedeschi, economic director at Budget Lab and former chief economist of the White House Economic Advisory Council in the Biden administration, of the proposals to eliminate the tax on tips.

In addition, nearly two-thirds of restaurant workers who receive tips would not benefit from the proposals because their income is insufficient to pay federal income taxes, according to an analysis by the advocacy group One Fair Wage.

“It’s good policy but bad strategy,” said Erica York, senior economist and research director at the Tax Foundation, a right-leaning think tank.

York expressed concern that eliminating the tip tax would be too complicated and unfair to all workers except the “small bunch” who would benefit from it.

“The fact that the Harris campaign is talking about guardrails and income limits suggests that there may be problems,” York said. “It fails in terms of fairness and neutrality.”

It’s also unclear how employers and customers might react to such a policy change. For example, if more workers take tipped jobs, employers might try to pay them less, Tedeschi says. Or companies might try to convert more jobs — such as those based on commission — into tipped jobs. And customers, many of whom are already experiencing tip fatigue, might fight back and tip less.

However, Nevada’s powerful Culinary Workers Union Local 226 said it supports eliminating the tax on tips for service and restaurant workers and raising the federal minimum wage.

Ted Pappageorge, Secretary and Treasurer of the Culinary Union praised Harris, who endorsed the union last week, and said in a statement Saturday that she “recognizes the hard-working men and women of the hotel industry.”

However, when Trump introduced the proposal in June, Pappageorge said, “Tip earners definitely need relief, but Nevada workers are smart enough to distinguish between real solutions and the wild campaign promises of a convicted felon.”

The union changed its position because there are now bills in Congress supported by Nevada senators and representatives, including two representatives who were formerly members of the Culinary Union, said union spokeswoman Bethany Khan.

This “will allow hospitality workers to have a seat at the table in further discussions around the law,” she told CNN.

Eliminating the federal tax on tips would also increase the federal budget deficit, although the amount would depend on the provisions of the law.

Excluding tips from federal income tax alone could result in revenue losses of at least $107 billion over a ten-year period, according to the Tax Foundation.

According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, eliminating both federal income and payroll taxes would result in a revenue loss of $150 billion to $250 billion over a decade. Eliminating the federal income tax on tips alone would result in a loss of about half that amount.

CNN’s Aaron Pellish contributed to this report.