It’s really, really complicated. The impact, the morality, the unintended economic incentives… everything about a “tip credit” (or “tip penalty” as opponents call it) is a lot more complicated than our current minimum wage debate allows.
Which is a long way of saying that I’m not finished writing the post on the tip credit that I had previously promised. In the meanwhile, I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on it in the comment thread.
http://www.seattlechannel.org/.....tart=41:05
Mayor Murray elucidating his position on tip credit to Jess Spear.
If she doesn’t let you stick it in very deep you get “just the tip” credit. I say it still counts.
This is a summary piece – it would be worth it to read the in-depth stuff if the writer still has it up on his site.
The federal minimum wage for tipped employees is still $2.13 an hour, and some rightwingers are saying if the federal minimum wage for fry cooks and parking valets rises to $10.10, they’re not going to tip the $2.13-an-hour waitress anymore. It probably won’t make any difference, because they’re probably not tipping her now. Oh, and if she tells their rowdy kid to stop disturbing the other patrons, they’ll complain to her boss and get her fired. Yeah, I’m talking about you Stefan Sharkansky, you despicable sack of slime.
@3, good read. Interesting that they used the 18% service charge to help reduce the disparity between the back of the house (which makes the food at a set wage) and the front of the house (where a decent server can clear $500+ a night in tips).
I think the “no tip credit” crowd is just hoping they can add extra sugar to their $6 increase in wages with tips. Afterall, with tip credit averaged over a weekly pay period is still likely to be far above minimum wage in all but the sleepiest of restaurants.
Tip credits make no sense.
Tipped employees are working for two different people at the same time. They are a salesman for the establishment, and a servant for the patron. They receive two wages, and have to please two bosses, with different goals and expectations.
To say that the establishment can pay the tipped employee less, simply because he has the simultaneous 2nd job of working for the customer, is silly. Tipped employees should be treated exactly the same as employees working two untipped jobs.
There are also the issues of the common flat-rate tip credit. The biggest problem being that you might work for $2/hr and still not get any tips – most tipped work comes in short, high workload rushes. When there is not a rush on, you aren’t making any tips, but you’re still only getting paid the tip-credited wage to clean windows or wash dishes.
@Lack Thereof,
You don’t understand tip credit. Having worked as a server in a state with tip credit, under that system your wages are guaranteed to be the minimum wage. Yes, you are doing setup work as part of the job. You get tips from customers too. You’ll get is your base wage + tips or the minimum wage, whichever is greater. All the tip credit does is change where that base wage is relative to the minimum wage (equal or less than).
@chiefjoe
In that case, there’s a pretty serious enforcement problem in the Phoenix area, because just about every golf course there pays the bulk of their employees the tipped minimum, regardless of whether or not they actually got significant tips.
But, regardless, even a well crafted tip credit is unjust, because as I said above, a tipped job is in reality 2 separate jobs.
http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs15.pdf
Tip Credit
: Section 3(m) of the FLSA permits an employer to take a tip credit toward its minimum wage obligation for tipped employees equal to the difference between the required cash wage (which must be at least $2.13) and the federal minimum wage. Thus, the maximum tip credit that an employer can currently claim under the FLSA is $5.12 per hour (the minimum wage of $7.25 minus the minimum required cash wage of $2.13).
sounds like Phoenix golf employees have a case to sue then.