Here’s a tip from the waitresses: Don’t cut our wages! (Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4559

By Barb Kucera, Workday editor
13 July 2010

ST. PAUL - Three Twin Cities waitresses vented their anger Tuesday over Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer’s proposal to pay tipped employees less than the minimum wage. And they said they’ll take action come election time.

“I’m not very political, but when someone threatens my livelihood, I have to step in,” said Renee Kroeten, a single mom from Plymouth working three jobs to support herself and her three children. She is paid a good wage as a unionized banquet server at the Marquette Hotel, she said, but doesn’t get enough hours to make ends meet, so she works two other part-time jobs.

If her wage is cut, she probably won’t be able to send her son to college, Kroeten said.

In remarks that have created a swirl of controversy, Emmer said some workers in the hospitality industry make $100,000 a year and that employers should be allowed to pay any worker who earns tips less than the minimum wage.

Recently, Emmer backtracked and changed his proposal to say the tips should not be subject to income tax. He also announced he will hold a town meeting Wednesday with servers in the hospitality industry at Ol’ Mexico Restaurante in Roseville.


Waitresses Liza Kent (center) and Lissi Corbett (right) listen as DFL gubernatorial candidate Margaret Anderson Kelliher talks about Emmer's proposal to cut server wages.
Some servers, however, aren’t buying it. They appeared at a news conference Tuesday with Margaret Anderson Kelliher, the DFL-endorsed candidate for governor.


FULL story at link.