4 ms·
The US generally allows waitstaff in restaurants to be paid below minimum wage, with the expectation that they'll earn the balance in tips.
by meepmorp 3y ago
The US generally allows waitstaff in restaurants to be paid below minimum wage, with the expectation that they'll earn the balance in tips.
- zerocrates 3y agoThe way this works, assuming everyone is following the law, is weird. Generally how it works is that the employee must make at least the normal minimum wage when including tips, and if they don't the employer has to make up the shortfall. So all tips that represent the difference between an employee's base wage and the minimum, those are basically going into the employer's pocket first, and only represent actually increased compensation for the employee once they get over the minimum.
- paulmd 3y agoAlso, while that's generally the rule, if you pester your employer to cover the tips, you're going to be fired/hours reduced. It's wildly easy to retaliate and arguably the employer can even justify the retaliation on "you're underperforming/if you can't make min wage we have too many waiters during those hours".
- zerocrates 3y agoYeah I considered adding that "following the law" is quite the assumption. My understanding is that this form of wage theft, minimum violation, whatever, is pretty widespread.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoThe US allows that federally, but in Washington state, where I live, servers must be paid minimum wage at least (which is $18.69/hour here in Seattle), any tip is extra.
- amanaplanacanal 3y agoSame in Oregon, though our minimum wage is quite a bit lower. Looks like the states that don’t allow tip credits against minimum wage are Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.
- meepmorp 3y agoAnd that's how it should be, imo.