It’s Been Twenty-Five Years Since Restaurant Workers Got a Raise

[eridani]

http://talkpoverty.org/2016/04/01/25-years-since-restauraunt-workers-got-a-raise/

Whenever you feel like it’s probably fine to not tip your server, that’s one more bill stacking up because they’re short on money. This is food for the week that our families will go without because you didn’t think it was necessary, even after asking for everything under the sun and receiving it free of charge, mind you. This is one less basic necessity my daughter needs because even TWO more dollars is too much for you.”

These words from a young, Colorado waitress named Taylar Cordova—accompanied by an image of a zero-tip check for a meal totaling $182—set the internet ablaze this week, receiving thousands of likes, shares, and comments on Facebook and sparking impassioned think pieces about the plight of our nation’s 11 million restaurant workers.

And it couldn’t have been timelier. Thanks to the efforts of industry groups like the National Restaurant Association—or “the other NRA,” as I like to call them—which has stymied efforts to raise wages for restaurant workers, today marks the 25th year the federal tipped minimum wage has been frozen at an abysmal $2.13 per hour. And when you’re paid $2.13 per hour by your employer, or even $5.29 as it is in Colorado, you are completely reliant on tips to pay your bills.

Happy anniversary, everybody!

Twenty-five years is a long time to go without paying a significant portion of your workers—servers, bussers, hosts, bartenders—at least the minimum wage, let alone a wage that enables a family to make ends meet. And as a result, servers are twice as likely to need food stamps than the rest of the U.S. workforce, and three times as likely to live in poverty. The restaurant industry now includes 7 of the 10 lowest paying jobs in the country.

[daleanime]

1. Waiting for the usual crap to appear.....

"Unskilled labor", "entry level position ", etc...etc....

[Sherman A1]

2. The fundamental solution is to eliminate the tip entirely

and insist that the employer pay a living wage of at least $15.00 per hour plus benefits.

The "tip" has simply gone on too long.

[SammyWinstonJack]

3. KnR

[LittleGirl]

4. as a 10 yr veteran

of restaurant work, now retired from that line of work, I will never understand how this is still the status quo.
When I was a waitress, I was paid 2.01 an hour and if I got stiffed, it hurt because I had to claim 8% of that stiff for taxes.

[trixicopper]

5. Tip credit laws are an abomination.

Tip credit laws are the reason that the restaurant industry in many states are allowed to pay servers less than the regular minimum wage. They should NOT be allowed to exist.

I say this as someone who has over 35 years experience working as a server/bartender. I am fortunate enough to live in a state that does not have such laws. We also have one of the higher minimum wages in the country. No one who works should EVER be paid less than the minimum wage. I don't care if they make tips or not.

While I do agree that the federal minimum is ridiculously low and is way past needing to be raised, I can't agree with abolishing tipping.