Restaurant workers lobby to lower minimum wage, and win.
Wait, what? Fox News is reporting the Maine State Legislature has voted to lower the minimum wage, after raising it last November, because the restaurant service staff lobbied for it. Seems the minimum wage for tipped staff is half of the state’s $9.00 minimum wage, known as a “tip credit” rule. This allows the managers to take up a 50% credit from employees’ wages, with the idea the employee will earn the remaining minimum and perhaps more in tips. If tips and credit don’t meet the minimum, the managers must make up the difference.
In a referendum, Maine’s House raised the minimum wage by $1 a year through 2024, and removed the tip credit altogether. High fives all around, everyone feels great, here’s your participation award.
“State Senator James Dill, a Democrat who initially voted to raise wages, told the Washington Post that after the Nov. referendum passed, he received “hundreds” of calls and emails from servers who were worried about their livelihood.
As a result, Dill threw his support behind a Republican measure to return the “tip credit” rule. After passing through the Senate on June 7, the bill was brought before the House on June 13, where it passed with a vote of 110-37.”
The new law will go into effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourned.
“As the Washington Post reports, servers were worried about the ramifications of the new laws for two reasons: first, that it would force employers to raise prices on their menu items, which could affect their current tips; and second, and perhaps more importantly, that employers might be forced to cut servers’ shifts as a result.”
The usual suspects are in denial. A Dave Palmer, representing Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, says, “We do not believe what we see in Maine is representative of the majority of workers. There’s no other industry that gets away with not paying their workers because customers can,” he later added. “This is bigger than any one state.”
Tell it to Seattle, Dave.
Category: "Teh Stoopid"
My only gripe is that the cute waitresses got more tips than I did.
Of course, I was the 90-cent/hour short-order cook who provided the entertainment while folks waited for their food, but the ladies got the tips.
I didn’t even get a gratuity when my HS homeroom teacher came in 3 sheets to the wind and I didn’t tell on him.
“Dave Palmer, representing Restaurant Opportunities Centers United,”
I wonder how many tables Dave has waited on.
Zip.
Should he protest (too much),let’s see tips on receipts and the taxes he paid on them.
Probably never pulled KP either.
The minimum-wage workers lobbied to reduce the minimum wage based on an understanding of the unsustainable nature of Keynesian economics. I can think of a few heads in danger of exploding.
Gee – ya think? (smile)
We will be lectured on how those folks “voted against their own interests”.
In other words, we will be told we are stupid becsue we do not see that they were stupid.
Cuz ya got to go to a College to know howz the little folks is supposed to do stuff n’ like that.
Ach du Liber…..
I tried to mangle that last sentence, and autocorrect keeps -correcting- it. Yet, let me try to type English, and I get “Mock Klingon” or something….
It’s amazing what happens when folks think for themselves and don’t swallow the “party kool aid”!
And considering how many people in Maine are so dependent on tourism and service industries, no wonder so many people had no desire to cut their own throats.
Well, that and anyone with $100 and a running vehicle has moved out already….
You are refering to southern Maine which is also known as Northern Massachusetts.
Up here in Aroostook County we ain’t got no windmills, lobsta boats or seashore.
Anyone with $100 and a running vehicle is doing pretty good.
Lighthouses..not “windmills”.
We have hundreds of those damn things.
Frankly, I can see that, because your state tax system is so fucked up, who would WANT to make any money?
I considered a job offer from Maine not long ago, for about half a second. Even with the pay increase I would have received, the taxes would have taken that and then some.
Next job I seriously consider is going to be in Texas, Florida, New Hampshire, or other states without state income tax.
Customers pay all the employees in a restaurant. Sad thing is, if a server reports all or even most of their tips they will owe more in taxes than their hourly wage.
I wonder where the money to pay all employees comes from according to Dave Palmer. Maybe I was doing something wrong all those years.
I’m curious about this, Dave; for years I’ve been tipping 20% for good and personable service. Is this standard? Sub-standard? Over-tipping? What??? Just where the hell am I on this tipping scale?
That’s about right for good service.
That is a good tip, and should have been noticeably earned.
Human robots that take my order with lots of cheese on their smile while going through the motions of feigned give a shit…10%.
It also depends on how busy a restaurant is, if they are slammed I don’t expect my server to much more than survive.
The Mrs. and I, having worked in various food-service industries over the years, tend to tip at usually over the 20% rate.
We eat out seldom, and at our age do not get the high-dollar items when we do. But we live in a college town and know what it is like to try to work ones way through college.
My HS best friend’s mother worked as a waitress while nursing her husband battling cancer and raising a high-school daughter.
So, I tend to advocate generous tipping as a way to help those trying to get by in hard circumstances.
Of course, a rude or sloppy server can make me alter that practice on a one-time basis.
Seattle? The damn study nade it clear that there was no impact on restaurant workers.
And this whole anecdotal narrative from one democrat about phone calls is bullshit. It has zero evidential value on the economic impact of the prior bill.
Do you believe a democrat every time they claim phone calls convinced them to vote a certain way or only when you agree with the way they voted?
What in the blue-eyed world are you referring to, COMMISSAR Commissar POODLEDICKED PIUPERDINK?
You just proved you don’t read anything at all. No one is going to do your homework for you. You failed this test by hundreds of points.
Reading IS NOT fundamental in Commissar’s world… but talking out of his ass is.
Depends on which study you’re talking about, Berkeley-boi. There were two different studies conducted on the effect of the $15/hr minimum wage in Seattle. I’m beginning to believe you didn’t realize that.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/26/news/seattle-minimum-wage-15/index.html
The cursory survey conducted by Berkeley researchers – which, by the way, did not have access to comprehensive data concerning hours worked by individuals and concerned only one field of employment – concluded it worked. The broader study – conducted by UW researchers, who had access to data on the number of hours worked by individuals and looked at low-wage jobs across the board in the Seattle area – reached very different conclusions. That broader study concluded the $15 minimum wage in general hurt rather than helped low-income workers.
Personally, I’ll trust a study that based its conclusions on comprehensive measured data over a study that didn’t have access to that same type of data and only looked at part of the subject. But maybe that’s just me. Some people are perfectly fine with accepting opinion masquerading as research.
But I’ll make one further observation: you keep using the term “empirical data”. I do not think that term means what you think it means. Specifically, it does not mean “data I agree with” or “data that supports my preconceived notions”.
Hondo, it’s obvious DOUBLE DUMBOAT didn’t read the article. All he saw was ‘minimum wage’ and that sent him off the rails.
Reread what he posted. He refers to Seattle. The article has nothing to do with Seattle or that study.
He just proved himself to be an out-and-out quack.
Well, the article does mention Seattle at the end – even if the subject of the article is Maine. So his reference to Seattle isn’t totally absurd in this context.
It’s asinine, because it simply further exposes his lack of homework on the subject. But it’s not totally absurd.
If that’s the only thing that the COMMISSAR Commissar THE DUMBEST DORK EVER saw when he scanned the article, it points to several specific things about him, one of them being that his primary intention is to stir up trouble.
Lars, REALLY? It is clear to EVERYONE here except you that you DID NOT READ the article! It’s not even talking about Seattle, you numbskull!
Go crawl back under your rock. You contribute absolutely nothing whatsoever of value to this group. You don’t even make a useful punching bag. It’s long past time for Jonn to have banned you permanently.
Ever wait on tables, or work as a cook, bunky? I have (well 99% cook), and can tell you a minimum wage increase in restaurants is economic suicide. Like the article says, prices go up and staffing goes down. The single most expensive item in running a restaurant are the warm bodies you employ.
Frankly anyone with a brain and the ability to work hard can make decent tips as a server, but it does depend on where you work. I doubt the servers at (say) Gold Star Chili make the same as the ones at Red Lobster or Outback do, given the latter’s higher prices.
It sucks watching a server suffer thru a night where s/he gets 3 tables in 4 hours, but that’s balanced out by the weekend nights where they can make $300-$400.
This has got to be a record…
15 comments in and The Pride of Berkeley chimes in with a drive by comment.
I’ll check back later to see how bad the ass-handing is going.
Dime, a quarter, half a dollar, dollar, 8%, 10%, 15%, 18%, 20%, 25%, pay a good wage and do away with tips. I hate to pay because I am expected to, even with shitty service. I am 70 years of age and I tip good, even though I hate the practice. Tipping is supposed to be for good service, not to support a livelihood.
Sure, Dave, we could do that. But it’s been my experience that in locations where that’s done a “service charge” of 10-15% is added to the bill anyway.
No thanks. If I get crappy service, I want the option to leave an appropriately small tip – or no tip at all.
Actually, pretty much anywhere you go anymore, large parties (I’ve seen 6 considered large) get 18 percent tacked on.
Again, go to a restaurant in Portland, Bar Harbor, etc., and they actually have to explain tipping to the foreign tourists.
Different David here… the one from Houston: I remember in German we only rounded up the bill as a gesture and the waitstaff was paid some salary regardless. But leaving someone zero tip, or an intentionally tiny one, sent a message. Back in the days of a cheap cup of coffee, a tip of a penny might be insulting or it could be someone mistook a penny for a dime. $.02 was highly insulting… it showed the customer MEANT it.
Having worked as a waiter many times (always gotta have a second job) I can say that foreigners are generally horrible tippers, if they tip at all. As for percentages, It thee service was just ok, I go with 15%, if it was above average, 20%, and if it was bad, anywhere from 10% down to a single penny face down… and yes, that does send a message
Probably because tipping is more of an American custom… most foreign countries don’t do it. They think we are nuts.
Well, that and it’s Maine. Not like the Canuckistan tourists tip worth a shit anyway.
I believe the plural of “anecdote” is “empirical evidence”. So, to throw another anecdote on the pile, I used to manage a chain restaurant, one of 14 in my city. We were allowed a certain percentage of sales for labor, food costs, and other items. If your figures weren’t within that percentage you had better have a good excuse. Higher labor costs meant I scheduled fewer employee hours and worked more hours myself.
It ain’t rocket science. It’s hard, cold basic Econ 101, the demand curve. Or game theory, in this case a zero-sum game. All the “studies” in the world are needless; just ask any employer what happens when his hourly labor costs go up.
The tip-credit scheme? Nobody I ever knew liked it. Employees who declared all(or most)of their tips complained about receiving no paycheck, those who declared too little required “counseling”. If I had to make up the difference the employee needed a good excuse for not making enough tips. Some of my employees asked me to calculate how much they should declare.
All because some ratfarkling politicians just could not bear to see some trifling amount of money escape their grasp. Even that of the low-income groups they claim to be looking out for.
TA, I can tell you’ve been there. 🙂
These days the bigger chains have computer terminals and record keeping, including total sales. A server can’t cash out until they’ve declared a minimum tip amount, usually around 6 or 8%. I mean that literally. They can’t cash out or clock out until they’ve declared a certain minimum percentage of sales as tips. The logic (so I’ve been told) is that anyone who can’t make 6 or 8% in tips shouldn’t be waiting on tables in the first place.
Restaurant workers are a different deal from most hourly workers. Ditto cab drivers. Don’t extrapolate out too far. But at least this post continues TAH’s fine tradition of being jealous and envious and feeling threatened that anyone else, other than a military person, might have his life improved, however modestly.
The recipients of your “improvement” rejected it as harmful.
Accept that you were wrong, or double-down and state that they campaigned against their own interests.
That crashing noise you just heard was me falling off my bar stool.
Workers actually asking for a minimum wage to be LOWERED???????