Restaurateurs Rail Against Tip Worker Wage Increase

[Omaha Steve]

http://braintree.patch.com/groups/business-news/p/restaurateurs-rail-against-tip-worker-wage-increase

Tipped worker wages would increase from $2.63 per hour to $5.50 per hour. That has some restaurant owners fighting back.
Posted by Joseph Markman (Editor) , November 21, 2013 at 09:44 AM

By Roberto Scalese

The Massachusetts Restaurant Association is ready to fight back against a proposed increase in the tipper worker minimum wage, according to the Boston Business Journal. Tipped workers, like waitresses, currently make $2.63 an hour, and many get a paycheck with no money at all because of taxes withheld.

In the minimum wage bill passed by the Senate on Tuesday, the tipped worker minimum wage would increase to $.50 an hour next year, and settle at $5.50 by the middle of 2016.

That's too much, according to the restaurant group. Restaurants already have to pay the difference if a waiter's combined tips and wages don't meet the state's $8 an hour minimum wage for non-tipped workers. The group also noted that waiters and waitresses in Massachusetts already enjoy the highest combined salary and tips earnings in the country, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

What do you think? Is $2.63 an hour too low for waiters and waitresses to make in an hour? Does that low wage factor in your decision on how much to tip? Would you tip less if waitresses earned more? Tell us in the comments below.

[Politicalboi]

1. Why not get rid of the tips

Pay the workers $8.00 or more an hour, and forget about tips. How much does coffee, 2 eggs and toast, really cost the restaurant. But they charge 5 or 6 dollars for it. I can buy 18 eggs for 3 bucks, and a loaf of bread for under 2 at a store. So by that, a restaurant can make 9 meals and charge 6 bucks for each. $54.00 for $5.00 spent.

[catnhatnh]

4. Yeah, but no-not even close....

Yes, the servers deserve a living wage, but you seem not to realize how much harder restaurant bread and eggs have to work than those lazy ones you bring home...

Your food rides home free where the eggs take a leisurely stroll to the frying pan for a brief rest while your bread tans in an electric booth before they march to your plate for a good mastication and swallowing. Nice of them but really bush league when compared to professional food.

When those same supplies hit the restaurant it REALLY hits the fan. What happened at your house-that has to happen too but that part is just a tiny percentage....watch what MY supplies paid for...

A Building....which you get to eat in

Chairs and tables with plates and silverware for you to eat off

On the table will be things like butter, jams and jellies, salt and pepper,ketchup and maybe a hot sauce or two...and that's just for the bread and eggs...

Now the waitress gets you to a table and relays your order to a cook-he's the guy at the back in the kitchen filled with equipment costing no less than 25,000 dollars but often many times more. You see-your frying pan and toaster were less than $500 even if I throw in a new base model stove. You get the idea but now that he's cracking the eggs has he covered his expenses???

Not quite-lets add

Land taxes or lease
Restaurant license
Fire system inspection
Propane gas and electric
water and sanitation
Liability insurance

Now we've covered some basics-let's send the eggs and toast out.
Oh that's right-you wanted a coffee too. Regular or Decaf? Milk or Cream? Sugar or artificial sweetener?
Good thing that the eggs and bread are paying for all this stuff-heh?

And the cashier, and the busboy and the guy who does the ordering and shopping and the other guy who does the books and payroll. And the guy who prepares the monthly state tax returns.

All of which sounds like I'm being tough on you, but I've run a food business and maybe you should consider that the guy didn't just drop 2 raw eggs in your hand and top them with white bread while he was picking your pockets. My breakfast this morning was one egg over easy, white toast, two strips of bacon, and coffee. It cost 5.25 and was delicious. And it was worth it.

[MrModerate]

6. Your breakfast was probably worth more like 10 bucks . . .

But the restaurateur has you believing that he can't pay his employees so you have to make up the difference by tipping. Insane.

[Laelth]

2. $2.63 is far too low.

$5.50 sounds like a reasonable compromise position to me.

-Laelth

[Shrike47]

3. They should be paid at least minimum wage, not be paid by whim.

[MrModerate]

5. Pretty easy answer, one that works all over the world.

Eliminate tipping, and pay restaurant employees a fair wage in line with the skill and character needed to do the job well.

Please note that this is probably not minimum wage (especially at its pathetically low level in the US), but something more in the 15-20 bucks an hour for wait staff with a few years experience, and depending upon prevailing wages in the area.

The notion that restaurateurs get away with shaming their customers into providing an essential component of their employees' compensation is flatly nuts. Especially when it often doesn't work out reliably for the employee.

This would probably lead to an increase in the cost of restaurant dining. So be it.

[De Leonist]

7. Don't know how true this is

I remember meeting a Danish man visiting family here in the U.S. who said in Denmark tipping a host/hostess is considered insulting. But than it's Denmark, a country with a strong Social Democrat party.

[Pat Riot]

8. 55 year old waitress here

I have been flamed for this unpopular opinion here before, but whatever, we're Democrats, right?

I work in a very expensive fine dining place. We're union - yay Local 57! - so our base pay is above minimum, which helps, but the gratuity is by far the greater part of my income. If gratuity were taken away and my base pay raised to minimum wage, it would be a 2/3 to 3/4 cut in income. Not exaggerating. I'd be better off on welfare.

The story is completely opposite for servers in some Mom-and-Pop diner or some crap chain like Applebees. They work harder and take more abuse for much less. And that rule about employers supposed to make it up to you if your tips don't make minimum wage? Never in 40 years have I ever seen it happen. It's too hard to prove, too easy to get around.

I don't see how this could be legislated to help the Applebees people without screwing me into homelessness. IMO the Applebees type jobs were never meant to support a family; they're more suited to high school or college students or as a secondary income. Our economy is just so in the shitter that the sacred "job creators" now point to these jobs as decent jobs.

I also think that as Americans become more aware of the absolute garbage that's in some of these substances we shove in our pie-holes, the devastation to both our health as a nation and, consequently, to our economy, brought about by continuing to subsidize Big Ag, these fast food and Crapplebee places are going to fade away. I say it's more practical to focus on real job creation, say fix our crumbling infrastructure (Pittsburgh's bridges alone could turn around the whole state) and develop alternative forms of energy that don't cause cancer and destroy the atmosphere. But I digress.

As far as the cost-of-a-dozen eggs thing goes, look, everybody knows it's cheaper to cook at home than go out. If you can't afford to tip, please stay home, fry your own eggs, and do your own dishes.

As a lifer in the biz, yes, I would continue to tip heavily if I knew servers were making 8 bucks instead $2.63, but I don't think most people would.