Minimum wage for tipped workers unchanged since '91 (Miami Herald/McClatchy)

[eppur_se_muova]

By TONY PUGH
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON --
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A single mother of two, Foti works as a waitress at the Bridgewater Diner in Bridgewater, N.J. So her base pay of $2.13 per hour didn't budge Friday when the federal minimum wage went from $6.55 to $7.25 an hour.

Foti, 34, is one of roughly 146,000 Americans - many of them restaurant, hotel, car wash and nail salon employees - who are paid mainly through customer tips and therefore earn a lower federal minimum wage, $2.13 an hour.

That federal floor wage for tipped workers has been stuck at $2.13 hourly for 18 years in many states. So Foti didn't take it well when the standard minimum wage increased for the third time in three years Friday.

"It's completely and totally unfair," she said. "These other people that make the ($7.25 an hour) minimum wage, they know they're gonna get their money, but we got to kick butt to get good tips, and we have to put up with a lot of abuse from customers. If you don't fill their coffee cups fast enough, they're not gonna leave anything. I think we should be treated like any other worker in New Jersey and America."

So do the folks at the National Employment Law Project, a pro-labor advocacy group in New York. They've just released a report, "Restoring the Minimum Wage for America's Tipped Workers," that calls for increasing the $2.13 rate and improving protections against "tip stealing" by employers and managers.
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more: http://www.miamiherald.com/business/nation/story/1156271.html

[imdjh]

1. There is no reason why tipped employees should be paid a lower hourly.

I don't know the history of the separate minwage for tipped employees, but I suspect that it dates to a time when these workers were not actually employees in the same sense as a regular employee.

Many employers of reduced wage workers abuse this to get cheap janitorial and other labor. I have actually said to an employer who thought it would be a good idea if we dismantled the kitchen on a slow day, "The reduced wage is to account for tips, not to give you cheap janitors."

Seriously, there is no work that I consider myself too good to do, but I"m not going to steam clean a kitchen in my nice dining room clothes in between waiting on tables.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Probably just restaurant owners poor-mouthing their representatives...

Letting them know that honest wages would put them out of business :cry:, theirs is an exceptional situation, etc. etc. Oh, and donating to their campaign fund. Should have put that first.

[juno jones]

2. 19 years? Try 25+!

$2.15 is the wage I used to make at my first restaurant/waitressing gig back in '81. Minimum was $3.35 at the time. One of the reasons I took kitchen work was to get a decent, steady wage independant of the uncertainity of tips.

In WA state, waitstaff are paid the same minimum as everyone else (around $8 here) and, IIRC, waitstaff are paid minimum in CA too.

on edit: I hope someone seriously looks into tip stealing too. The last place I ever waitressed had the stipulation that 15% of your tips had to go the owner to be given to some of her relatives that just seemed to hang around the kitchen (I never saw them actually working although they were supposedly 'busboys'). She would keep track of all sales and demand the percentage she had estimated at the end of the night regardless of whether you got 15% from each table or not.

There's some real scams out there.

[AnneD]

4. I remember when it was $1.35 when I waitressed in college....

and then it was 10 cents more than what mom tried to support us on in the 50's.

I will not eat if I can't tip. It is 20% basic and more if the service is good. I also tip them at Christmas (I start giving them out before Black Friday). Not that I ask, but I notice I get great service at my regular places. I tip hotel maids, gardeners, etc. At the nail salon, they treated my niece like a princess when I took her in for her first mani/pedi last week. It was a great memory for her. I always tip generously.

Hey 19, I would have turned her in to the State labour Board. You boss could have been fined and made to reimburse you. Many a lawyer would go after the bigger company owner for you.

[juno jones]

5. This was 25 years ago

And I admit I just had that job for the tips so we could blow town (Berkeley, CA, headed to Seattle). It was a mom and pop place and I suspect the owners might have had some immigration deal going with their family in the back who never worked.

I didn't want anything but to get my money and get out of there. :)

On the other hand, I worked in another restaurant in Berkeley, just previously to that, that I suspect was part of the 'sanctuary' movement. We had unusaully well-educated dishwashers.

I make a point of tipping well too. Nice to meet people who understand... :hi:

[Sgent]

6. This is somewhat misleading

Tipped employees have the same rights to a minimum wage as other employees -- $7.25. If $2.13 + Tips < 7.25, then the establishment has to make up the difference.