4 ms·

> as long as they pay those workers at least the minimum wage Do US employeers not have to pay workers the minimum wage?

blakesterz 9y ago
Tipped employees make less: "According to a common labor law provision referred to as a “tip credit”, the employee must earn at least the state’s minimum wage when tips and wages are combined or the employer is required to increase the wage to fulfill that threshold." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipped_wage_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipped_wage_in_the_United_Stat...
- paulcole 9y ago
  This is not true for every state. Oregon, among others, pays minimum wage to servers and other tipped employees.
- projektfu 9y ago
  Yes, but the minimum wage applies to the 40-hour work week, so the wage can be kept low by being overscheduled.
x0x0 9y ago
Not tipped workers. In many states, they get a separate minimum wage in the $3/h range.
Chromozon 9y ago
https://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm https://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm Employers do not directly have to pay employees the minimum wage if the tips earned from the work add up to the minimum wage.
- mikeash 9y ago
  The fun part about this is that it’s averraged over an entire pay period. That means you can end up working many hours for a marginal wage of almost nothing, as long as there are a few good hours mixed in.
s73ver_ 9y ago
Depends on the state. In California, they have to be paid at least minimum wage regardless.
- briandear 9y ago
  By Federal Law they have to be paid minimum wage. However, any waiter who can't clear more than minimum wage is doing it wrong.
  - vkou 9y ago
    More specifically, they will be very quickly fired.
  - s73ver_ 9y ago
    Yes, but that requires the person knowing that law, and being in a position where they feel they can report it without fear of retribution. Most people who fall victim to wage theft don't fall into those groups. In California, and Oregon, apparently, they are paid minimum wage from the start, and receive their tips on top of that, instead of being paid some "tipped alternative minimum wage" and then hoping that my employer is benevolent enough to follow the law and make up the difference.
    - briandear 9y ago
      Every single resturant kitchen with a time clock I've ever been in in my entire life has some variation of the following poster: https://www.laborlawcc.com/uploads/image/california-los-angeles-county-minimum-wage-english-web.jpg https://www.laborlawcc.com/uploads/image/california-los-ange... And it's always posted in English and Spanish -- including phone numbers of who to confidentially call to report violations. If people choose not to report violations -- that's really on them. We're generally talking about adults here -- not helpless children.
      - s73ver_ 9y ago
        Yeah, no. If you're in the position where you're told, regardless of what's on the poster, that reporting means you're fired, then you are not in a position to do so. This fake machismo around things like this, where the immense pressure and power that employers have over their employees is completely ignored, needs to go away.
jzymbaluk 9y ago
As others have said, employers have a much lower minimum wage for tipped workers in most states. However, perhaps unintuitively, workers still usually prefer tipped over non-tipped jobs because you can usually bring home more money through tips than through the minimum wage
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
framebit 9y ago
As the other answers have said, they don't for tipped jobs. This is why tipping service people in restaurants in the states is a big deal because it's the bulk of their paycheck and anecdotally there are plenty of shady employers who don't follow the rule about making up the difference.
dragonwriter 9y ago
Both in federal law and most state laws, tipped workers have a lower base minimum wage, but have to be “topped up” by the employer to the general minimum wage if their tips are insufficient (but as tips are also frequently used as a performance measure, and many tipped professions are high-labor-supply fields where vacancies are easily filled and thus employers are quick to let people go, tipped employees that would need topped up are under pressure to pad their own tips to protect their job.) If tipped workers had the general minimum wage as their base minimum wage with no top-up requirement, much of the abuses would go away (and there'd be less employer desire to drive the practice, but the culture would probably endure for some time.)

blakesterz 9y ago

Tipped employees make less: "According to a common labor law provision referred to as a “tip credit”, the employee must earn at least the state’s minimum wage when tips and wages are combined or the employer is required to increase the wage to fulfill that threshold." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipped_wage_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipped_wage_in_the_United_Stat...

paulcole 9y ago
This is not true for every state. Oregon, among others, pays minimum wage to servers and other tipped employees.
projektfu 9y ago
Yes, but the minimum wage applies to the 40-hour work week, so the wage can be kept low by being overscheduled.

x0x0 9y ago

Not tipped workers. In many states, they get a separate minimum wage in the $3/h range.

Chromozon 9y ago

https://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm https://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm Employers do not directly have to pay employees the minimum wage if the tips earned from the work add up to the minimum wage.

mikeash 9y ago
The fun part about this is that it’s averraged over an entire pay period. That means you can end up working many hours for a marginal wage of almost nothing, as long as there are a few good hours mixed in.

s73ver_ 9y ago

Depends on the state. In California, they have to be paid at least minimum wage regardless.

briandear 9y ago
By Federal Law they have to be paid minimum wage. However, any waiter who can't clear more than minimum wage is doing it wrong.
- vkou 9y ago
  More specifically, they will be very quickly fired.
- s73ver_ 9y ago
  Yes, but that requires the person knowing that law, and being in a position where they feel they can report it without fear of retribution. Most people who fall victim to wage theft don't fall into those groups. In California, and Oregon, apparently, they are paid minimum wage from the start, and receive their tips on top of that, instead of being paid some "tipped alternative minimum wage" and then hoping that my employer is benevolent enough to follow the law and make up the difference.
  - briandear 9y ago
    Every single resturant kitchen with a time clock I've ever been in in my entire life has some variation of the following poster: https://www.laborlawcc.com/uploads/image/california-los-angeles-county-minimum-wage-english-web.jpg https://www.laborlawcc.com/uploads/image/california-los-ange... And it's always posted in English and Spanish -- including phone numbers of who to confidentially call to report violations. If people choose not to report violations -- that's really on them. We're generally talking about adults here -- not helpless children.
    - s73ver_ 9y ago
      Yeah, no. If you're in the position where you're told, regardless of what's on the poster, that reporting means you're fired, then you are not in a position to do so. This fake machismo around things like this, where the immense pressure and power that employers have over their employees is completely ignored, needs to go away.

jzymbaluk 9y ago

As others have said, employers have a much lower minimum wage for tipped workers in most states. However, perhaps unintuitively, workers still usually prefer tipped over non-tipped jobs because you can usually bring home more money through tips than through the minimum wage

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

framebit 9y ago

As the other answers have said, they don't for tipped jobs. This is why tipping service people in restaurants in the states is a big deal because it's the bulk of their paycheck and anecdotally there are plenty of shady employers who don't follow the rule about making up the difference.

dragonwriter 9y ago

Both in federal law and most state laws, tipped workers have a lower base minimum wage, but have to be “topped up” by the employer to the general minimum wage if their tips are insufficient (but as tips are also frequently used as a performance measure, and many tipped professions are high-labor-supply fields where vacancies are easily filled and thus employers are quick to let people go, tipped employees that would need topped up are under pressure to pad their own tips to protect their job.) If tipped workers had the general minimum wage as their base minimum wage with no top-up requirement, much of the abuses would go away (and there'd be less employer desire to drive the practice, but the culture would probably endure for some time.)