The REAL minimum wage

[AthenaAwakened]

$2.13

That's the Tipped Wage, the real minimum wage that applies to food servers and other workers traditionally tipped by customers.

Is it time to raise it? Change it? Get rid of it?

 

[funinspace]

What kind of third world place do you live in? MW is $9.10 where I live, regardless if one gets tips in addition to wages...

 

[AthenaAwakened]

What kind of third world place do you live in? MW is $9.10 where I live, regardless if one gets tips in addition to wages...

I live in the good old USA. And this is the wage for tipped worker as declared by federal law.

You can thank the NRA (not the gun people, the "would you like some more coffee?" People) and its then president, Herman Caine for it.

 

[dismal]

Why do people take these jobs?

They lack the skills necessary to get an actual minimum wage job?

 

[AthenaAwakened]

Why do people take these jobs?

They lack the skills necessary to get an actual minimum wage job?

people first and foremost take the jobs available that fit their time constraints and within their other obligations.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

$2.13

That's the Tipped Wage, the real minimum wage that applies to food servers and other workers traditionally tipped by customers.

Is it time to raise it? Change it? Get rid of it?

There's no reason for it at all. It always comes with the provision that wage + tips must be at least minimum wage.

Furthermore, in general tipped workers actually make more than minimum wage.

 

[KeepTalking]

To be fair, if the employee's tips, combined with this wage do not equal at least the MW, then the employer must make up the difference.

 

[funinspace]

What kind of third world place do you live in? MW is $9.10 where I live, regardless if one gets tips in addition to wages...

I live in the good old USA. And this is the wage for tipped worker as declared by federal law.

You can thank the NRA (not the gun people, the "would you like some more coffee?" People) and its then president, Herman Caine for it.

Well we in Origami, we don't let Caine beat on us...so we set the MW higher.

 

[dismal]

Why do people take these jobs?

They lack the skills necessary to get an actual minimum wage job?

people first and foremost take the jobs available that fit their time constraints and within their other obligations.

So people are willing to work for $2 per hour because it's convenient for them?

What are these other obligations these $2 per hour workers are juggling that make working a minimum wage job so challenging?

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Isn't the point of a minimum wage pretty much "If you lack skills, this is the wage you get paid"?

 

[ksen]

I think the actual point of the minimum wage is because "fuck you."

eta: to the workers buddy, not to you :hug:

- - - Updated - - -

I voted "magical brownies" because the option I'd like to see isn't in there, to wit: Get rid of it and just pay a decent wage.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

Why do people take these jobs?

They lack the skills necessary to get an actual minimum wage job?

people first and foremost take the jobs available that fit their time constraints and within their other obligations.

So people are willing to work for $2 per hour because it's convenient for them?

people around the world work for a helluvalot less than that.

What are these other obligations these $2 per hour workers are juggling that make working a minimum wage job so challenging?

family, food, shelter.

Stuff like that.

 

[Ford]

A tasty magical confection is my vote.

The minimum wage for tipped employees should be the same as that for non-tipped employees for a very simple reason: The minimum wage is the floor. Below that level wages shall not go, or else it really isn't a minimum at all.

 

[ZiprHead]

What kind of third world place do you live in? MW is $9.10 where I live, regardless if one gets tips in addition to wages...

Holy crap! The unemployment there must be huge. HUGE, I tell ya!!!

 

[bilby]

The entire concept of tipping is bizarre, and is demeaning to all involved.

As an employee, I want to know whether I will earn enough this week to pay my rent; and I don't want to take unpredictable and random pay cuts because the customers I get happen to be having a bad day, or because the cook stuffs up their order, or for any of the myriad things beyond my control that affect how much people leave for a tip.

As a customer, I want to see a price on the menu that is the amount I will have to take out of my wallet. I don't want to have to guess how much to pay, and to risk poor treatment in future if I guess too low; And I don't want to have to carry enough cash to pay for everything, or to pay part by credit card and part by cash, just so I can be sure that the person I am tipping gets the tip.

As an employer, I don't want my staff competing against each other, I want them to work together as a team. And I don't want them to be sucking up to the few customers who are expected to be good tippers, and leaving other customers with a poorer level of service as a result.

The whole idea of tipping as a routine part of business sucks. Occasional tipping for excellent service, beyond the norm, I can understand - although even that has its problems.

You don't tip people who are your social equals. Nobody tips his dentist, or his accountant; tipping someone is a statement that you are of a superior class, and that their livelihood is at your whim as part of the ruling classes - at least, for the duration of your meal.

A minimum wage should be the lowest amount that anyone may be paid. No exceptions, no ifs, no buts.

 

[Ford]

You don't tip people who are your social equals. Nobody tips his dentist, or his accountant; tipping someone is a statement that you are of a superior class, and that their livelihood is at your whim as part of the ruling classes - at least, for the duration of your meal.

A minimum wage should be the lowest amount that anyone may be paid. No exceptions, no ifs, no buts.

I'm absolutely in agreement with your last statement, but I'm not so sure about the other stuff.

Of course you're not going to tip your dentist or your doctor (they may make more money than you do, after all), but I think it is a stretch to say that because I flipped a couple bucks to the valet who parked my late model sedan outside the PF Chang's at the mall that I'm lording over him as a superior member of the ruling class.

Am I above this guy on the social ladder? Maybe by one rung, but handing him a fiver isn't necessarily a statement let alone a "whim." In fact as a person who used to work for tips I consider it a gesture of solidarity to take extra care of a person whose position in life I used to share. The valet who parked my car and brought it back to me unscathed is every bit as much a victim of the system as I used to be - getting paid shit wages and being expected to make up the difference in tips - so who am I to stiff him when he hands over the keys?

 

[Narapoia]

Why do people take these jobs?

They lack the skills necessary to get an actual minimum wage job?

people first and foremost take the jobs available that fit their time constraints and within their other obligations.

So people are willing to work for $2 per hour because it's convenient for them?

What are these other obligations these $2 per hour workers are juggling that make working a minimum wage job so challenging?

Doesn't it depend on the state? I was given to understand that some states have the $2 tipped wage and others get MW with tips in addition? The winter driving job I did in Colorado was tipped and it certainly wasn't $2 an hour. I don't know if it falls into the tipped wage category even though we were expected to make the majority of our money from tips. As Bilby mentions above I did find it very demeaning. I stopped seeing people as people and treated them in the manner that would get me the best pat on the head, it also kindles some incredible rage when people stiff you and break the convention. You forget that treating people nicely and with respect should happen regardless of expectation of reward. Once I learned what to do though shit I made some money and spent a lot of time snowboarding.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

Whether or not you tip your waiter, your maid, your valet should be up to you and not a requirement. I tip and I have no problem with tipping but what if I'm strapped that week? What if it want the blue plate special and that's all i can afford? And what about all the other people who are strapped that week? Should they not dine out since they can't afford a tip?

More importantly, should a person's earnings be dependent on how much change another person gets back from a ten or a twenty? Be dependent on a stranger's mood that night? On the weather? If you work at a shoe store, and it's a rainy day and people just aren't coming in because they have decided to stay home, you get paid the same and you expect to get paid the same as if it were a sunny day with plenty of customers. Wait staff working in that same neighborhood with that same lack of customers deserves the same consideration.

 

[Canard DuJour]

Tipping is the reason we usually decide to go home and eat instead. Mainly because it'd be too big a pain in the arse to go find change, and asking for change from a tip is even more demeaning than tipping.

I once had the misfortune to go on an American cruise ship where you had to tip for everything. After a week of incessant demeaming exchanges, laden down like a mobile cash dispenser, named envelopes appear on your bed for tips for the cabin staff etc. Never again..

 

[AthenaAwakened]

Let's go back to the shoe store for a minute

You go to the shoe store and you buy a pair of loafers.

Do you think the clerk should expect you to pay his salary in any part for his act of service in sizing your feet, going in the back, finding your size shoe, kneel in front of you and placing the shoe on your foot? I mean, buying shoes can be a fairly intimate act and definitely a personal service. Or do you think we should pay sales clerks and not the store?