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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThere are seven states with no restaurants
The federal minimum wage law has a loophole big enough to drive a serving cart through: tip credit. Because waitstaff receives gratuities from guests, the feds allow restaurant owners to pay the workers less than minimum. Ask any restaurant owner and he'll tell you: you couldn't survive in this business without tip credit.
This is why there are no restaurants in Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon or Washington, the seven states that don't allow tip credit.
Mass
(27,315 posts)HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)Cleita
(75,480 posts)Mass
(27,315 posts)even on DU that you have to check.
Jumpin Jack Fletch
(80 posts)jmowreader
(50,560 posts)The best part: I print the biggest daily in Central Washington. Central Washington has a few things going against the restaurant industry: agriculture doesn't pay much, it's full of antigovernment 'don't tell me what to do' types and not only do they have no tip credit they have a $9.19 minimum wage. But not a week goes by that at least one new restaurant or bar opens. So obviously you can thrive in that business if you pay workers.
Cleita
(75,480 posts)Also, having wait staff who are surly or sick because they are so underpaid doesn't make for a pleasant dining experience for the patrons.
aristocles
(594 posts)Those states have plenty of restaurants and do just fine.
SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)or sometimes "locations"..
ah, semantics
jmowreader
(50,560 posts)The weird one: Wells Fargo calls its branches stores.
cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)by taking them seriously. It is sarcastic.
Taverner
(55,476 posts)Critical thinking exercise, really
cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)MiniMe
(21,717 posts)I know there are restaurants in some of those places. California, Nevada, and Washington to name a few of them.
LeftofObama
(4,243 posts)I've been to all of those states and I have eaten in a restaurant in every one of them.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,740 posts)Some restaurant owners claim they couldn't survive without tip credits. In the states the OP listed, tip credits are prohibited. Since restaurants can't survive without tip credits, that must mean those states have no restaurants.
And yet they do. I live in Minnesota. We have lots and lots of restaurants, which apparently manage to survive even though tip credits are prohibited.
LeftofObama
(4,243 posts)I read it rather quickly, and I thought, "Huh?"
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)get the red out
(13,467 posts)Has to be because I've watched "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" go to all those states, LOL.
jmowreader
(50,560 posts)No restaurants in Sin City? Come on...the only crack I've ever seen is the one in most of the Reagan Republicans' heads.
cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)Go Vols
(5,902 posts)And a good post.
barbtries
(28,799 posts)i'm really glad i didn't dash off a quick response.
i actually thought that there had been some creative renaming of food selling establishments in those states.
SunSeeker
(51,574 posts)pipoman
(16,038 posts)for a server to earn an average of $15-$30 per/hr in tips, why is it necessary for the restaurant to pay a minimum wage at all?..these are figures from an area with an average income of $48k. A minimum wage worker @ 40 hours would make around $15k annually, a server averaging $15 (very conservative depending on the restaurant) would make the $15k plus $31k in tips.. If I owned a restaurant in a state which required me to pay minimum wage and tips, I would require all tips turned in and split among the entire staff so even the dishwasher could make better than minimum wage..
cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)pipoman
(16,038 posts)strippers in those places are "independent contractors"..meaning they are responsible for their own tax reporting and are not eligible for benefits...it is more of a pain to staff IC workers, but could be better if the workers are contracted.
riqster
(13,986 posts)The smart girls and guys could do pretty well, depending on whether the place was owned by a "club owner" or a "cluboner".
LadyHawkAZ
(6,199 posts)pipoman
(16,038 posts)if you violate those rules, the employee by definition isn't an IC and is entitled to employee rights...looks like what happened here..it isn't that strippers can't be IC, it is that the company using their services were not acting within the rules..
jmowreader
(50,560 posts)The "$40 an hour in tips" is like the "$40,000 your first year" they sucker people into the transportation field with. It's possible only if you run 3600 miles a week - starting pay is 25 cents per mile in a lot of places. Go to a truck stop, hit the laundry room and ask guys how many miles a week they're getting...3000 miles makes you a god among drivers in today's environment.
Seriously: they need to pay a minimum wage because in a lot of places the tips aren't there.
blogslut
(38,002 posts)bwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
pipoman
(16,038 posts)often exceed $20..
blogslut
(38,002 posts)However, let's break this down. My guess is your servers probably work five hour shifts and five shifts a week. At $15/hr that breaks down to roughly $1500 a month and that's before taxes and before tipping out to bussers and bartenders.
Am I getting warm?
pipoman
(16,038 posts)most are college or high school students. A few are 30-40 per week. Most are part time by choice or necessity..the hourly rate for part time including tips exceeds most other legitimate part time jobs. I have several applications per week, but most of my wait staff have been with me over a year and 3 have been with me over 5 years..not a lot of turn over..
blogslut
(38,002 posts)pipoman
(16,038 posts)pay them minimum not tip adjusted minimum plus tips. They average between 12.50 and 17.00..sometimes more. The full time each have 6-8 tables and work during breakfast/buffet services. Breakfast and Buffet services have lower tip percentage than full service services. The full time also may work evening services up to 40 hrs. We are different than most restaurants in that the public restaurant business is secondary to the retirement community amenity aspect of our restaurant. When I began managing the restaurant the waitstaff were temps provided by a work release program from a halfway house...in a medium income retirement community..No, the first thing I did was hire nice local people who happened to be great servers..the server world is a sub-culture..it gets in people's blood..I recruited this type of servers..they know how to enhance their tips through outstanding service. I want my servers to make good money. Part of my job is to recover a tip from a dissatisfied customer, if I make it right, often the customer will leave a tip anyway.
blogslut
(38,002 posts)Don't you?
regulations protect the public against predatory practices, in the process regulation sometimes stifles progressive policies.. even improvements in food quality in healthcare are difficult because regulations are much easier to comply with when using crappy boxed food..if you aren't serving boxed food inspectors don't know what to do.
marble falls
(57,112 posts)gets insurance, free meals, smoke breaks and scheduled meal break. I haven't made "$15 t0 $30" in tips per hr in years. And no one else in this town does either. Like minimum wage is so great.
ErikJ
(6,335 posts)The tip credit is a legacy of slavery as it exists only in the US where we had a strong slave culture for 200 years.
Myrina
(12,296 posts)FAIL.
Initech
(100,081 posts)Tien1985
(920 posts)AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)I never worked in foodservice, and I don't fully understand how this works. Is the minimum wage for servers here in WA the same as the regular minimum wage?
What about agricultural workers in this state?
jmowreader
(50,560 posts)I know harvesters are paid by the pound but not sure for equipment operators...last equipment operator ad I ran was offering $15.50 so that may not be an issue.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)titanicdave
(429 posts)in Washington State and I just had lunch at a local restaurant and there are restaurants all over the place so I think you are mistaken about Washington State at least.
abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)mountain grammy
(26,626 posts)I'm shocked and horrified.
Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)Last edited Tue Feb 26, 2013, 09:58 PM - Edit history (1)
starting at 20% to the wait staff at these restaurants that don't exist.
Pterodactyl
(1,687 posts)leveymg
(36,418 posts)Jeff In Milwaukee
(13,992 posts)I think subtlety is a lost art. At least on the internet.
bkkyosemite
(5,792 posts)I went to a resturant and the waitress told me they paid her just over $3.00 per hour and she had to share her tips with the cooks. She said she could not make it. I said move to WA which was just across the border and she said she was going to. Coeur d'Alene is in the panhandle a few minutes from the border of WA and 30 miles to Spokane. But there was smaller towns just across the border that paid the minimum of over $9.00 an hour + tips. She was quitting to move. Idaho is very red state. Always has been for many years and is a right to work state. Which means literally you don't have a right to work and we can pay you slave labor wages. Benefits are none existant unless you live in Boise and are a Mormon. But that is another subject all together. Those Idaho potato's are no where to be found either because they are shipped elsewhere lol. Luckily I am a Californian through and through and now stranded in So. Oregon but hey 27 miles from the CA border. And Oregon does pay their staff at least minimum I believe.
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)Matariki
(18,775 posts)Duer 157099
(17,742 posts)There are way too many people who don't understand the post!
Either it is from reading too quickly and not thinking before replying, or some other kneejerk response. Or worse, a serious lack of a sense of irony.
In all cases, scary!
trackfan
(3,650 posts)Dash87
(3,220 posts)THARS RESTERANTS I JUST WHENT TO ONE!!11!!!1!
treestar
(82,383 posts)Or all the states that have it should - then pay a real wage.
They do it that way in Australia. Restaurants still are open and service is fine. There's no tradition of tipping, though some do tip, but it's on top of getting paid whatever is the minimum wage.
Matariki
(18,775 posts)Here in Seattle there's whole city blocks with NOTHING but thriving restaurants.
Damn straight a restaurant owner should be paying AT LEAST minimum wage to their employees.