Should the tipped employee exemption to minimum wage be repealed?

[mrjurrs]

This is an issue I have changed my mind on in recent times, but to summarize the current situation and why I changed my mind let’s start with US Federal law, Federal Law specifically the Fair Labor Standards Act (or maybe fair standards of labor act? I always forget the order of the words) allows an establishment which permits employees to collect gratuities to pay a lower amount then the federal minimum wage, I think 2.13 an hour, if the employee makes enough in tips to cover the difference between that amount and minimum wage. If the employee does not make at least minimum wage then the employer must make up the difference.

in some states like mine the law makes no such exemption, the employer must pay the minimum wage regardless of tips or not.

I think the Federal FLSA should be amended to prohibit this exemption, and failing that the states that do not currently mandate minimum wage should mandate it.

why?

first off, the majority of tipped workers are women, and while they are entitled to at least minimum wage, women are measurably more agreeable and less likely to demand their full rights. Anyone who spends a little time reading Facebook posts about this topic finds many waitresses talk about being afraid for theif employment if they ask for the difference.

secondly, it should not be the customer’s responsibility to pay for employees. Yes some libertarian goober is thinking right now “lol you dumb commie we all pay for a businesses employees through the price, haven’t you ever read <insert obscure libertarian/neoliberal economist here”> that may be true, but it’s irrelevant, I should just be able to pay the cost of the meal so the server can get the minimum wage and a tip can be on top of that. I shouldn’t have to guess whether my server or her kid will eat today if I tip 25 versus 15 percent today.

thirdly, there is no right for a restaurant owner to make profit stiffing employees.

fourth, the very fact the law mandates that employers should make up the difference between tips and the minimum wage is a recognition this system is bogus to start with. If we’re going to acknowledge that the servers shouldn’t have to make a seperate demand for the wages they are owed.

fifth, it is an anti-family policy, America needs more families and keeping sectors of the economy in poverty does not forward this goal.

sixth, it is not fair to industries that actually have to follow the minimum wage law.

Finally for the right, it is literally cost free policy that will grow the base. No one except a narrow set of special interests wants this exemption, there will be zero electoral kickback for eliminating this exemption. The lack of a strong constituency that actually wants this means that it should be a no brainer.

Tipped minimum wage should also be eliminated because it is also a racially based law. This amendment was placed into the New Deal Minimum Wage law to placate southern state D racist senators.

 

[EMNofSeattle]

Tipped minimum wage should also be eliminated because it is also a racially based law. This amendment was placed into the New Deal Minimum Wage law to placate southern state D racist senators.

Yeah…. I don’t believe that, that sounds revisionist to me.

You can support a good idea without inventing causes that have little historical support.

 

[mrjurrs]

Yeah…. I don’t believe that, that sounds revisionist to me.

You can support a good idea without inventing causes that have little historical support.

"The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938, which established the first federal minimum wage, was no different. The law excluded most restaurant and hotel workers, and therefore most tipped workers. For those tipped workers covered, the law did not explicitly say whether tips employees received would count towards the minimum wage, although the Supreme Court held that they did four years later, in Williams v. Jacksonville Terminal Co. At the time, it was common practice for some classes of employees – waiters and waitresses, bellman, porters, barbers, and others – to receive little (or even no) cash wages from their employers and to be paid mostly or entirely in tips. Relevantly, the losing plaintiffs in Jacksonville Terminal Co. were “red cap” or Pullman porters, a workforce of railroad porters that famously remained all-black until desegregation in the 1960s."

The Tipped Subminimum Wage has Sexist and Racist Origins: It’s Time to End it ✦ OnLabor

Following through on President Biden’s campaign promise, Congressional Democrats have proposed increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 by 2026. The proposed law will finally eliminate the federal subminimum wage for tipped workers, which currently stands at $2.13. The Fair Labor...

onlabor.org

Sounds like you could benefit from some curriculum out of the 1619 Project...

 

[Bodi]

I don’t think it’s a binary choice. In many US states the minimum wage applies to all employees.

And they can still collect tips.

Pretty sure in CA that we got regular minimum wage and tips...

 

[Bodi]

Tipped minimum wage should also be eliminated because it is also a racially based law. This amendment was placed into the New Deal Minimum Wage law to placate southern state D racist senators.

That sounds ridiculously stupid but I am willing to listen to your argument.

 

[mrjurrs]

That sounds ridiculously stupid but I am willing to listen to your argument.

I don't have an argument. Look at the sausage making that led to the bill.

 

[bluesmoke]

Hmm… why is that (bolded above) not the policy for determining (minimum) Social Security retirement benefits?

You tell me. I made no such related claim or statement. What's your concern?

 

[danielpalos]

...Yes. We don't need the burden of that exception to the rules.