High minimum wage doesnt work after all

[thereselittleflower]

It's not really all that confusing at all.   What's confusing is liberals who don't understand how the economy and basic budgeting principles work and ignorant followers who think that companies have money growing on trees.

 

Around here, waiters and waitresses get $2.00 an hour plus tips and they make more than people who work entry level jobs for $9.00 an hour.   A friend mine's wife brings nearly $100 a night home in tips four days a week from the Olive Garden.

 

So they are not getting cheated by anyone.

 

 

Do you then have a solution to the very serious problem caused by legal tender being only a very small fraction of all debt in society today?    

[ricky]

I have not read the whole thread, but I work in fast food, and get paid way below 15 dollars per hour, and a little higher than minimum wage, I do believe for what I do what I get is a fair wage, for this area too, if you live prudently, it is a livable wage too. I do think there should be a minimum wage, but I think the current one (7.25 in this state) is appropriate. As others have said the minimum wage is not meant to be a living wage, it is the wage and the most entry level positions for low skill. That said a lot of people are under the miss conception that fast food only pays minimum wage, that may be true in some places, but in this area only one fast food restaurant chain pays minimum wage, and some start new employees at $9 per hour. 

[Guest shiloh357]

It depends littleflower, what serious problem are you referring to?

[thereselittleflower]

It depends littleflower, what serious problem are you referring to?

 

I'm confused.  I said what I was referring to in the very same sentence you responded to . ..  I have been long suspecting you don't really read what I write. .  This simply, sadly, confirms it.

[missmuffet]

It's not really all that confusing at all.   What's confusing is liberals who don't understand how the economy and basic budgeting principles work and ignorant followers who think that companies have money growing on trees.

 

Around here, waiters and waitresses get $2.00 an hour plus tips and they make more than people who work entry level jobs for $9.00 an hour.   A friend mine's wife brings nearly $100 a night home in tips four days a week from the Olive Garden.

 

So they are not getting cheated by anyone.

You really don't mean $2.00 an hour do you?

[thereselittleflower]

 

It's not really all that confusing at all.   What's confusing is liberals who don't understand how the economy and basic budgeting principles work and ignorant followers who think that companies have money growing on trees.

 

Around here, waiters and waitresses get $2.00 an hour plus tips and they make more than people who work entry level jobs for $9.00 an hour.   A friend mine's wife brings nearly $100 a night home in tips four days a week from the Olive Garden.

 

So they are not getting cheated by anyone.

You really don't mean $2.00 an hour do you?

 

 

 

Yep he does - or pretty close to it   .   Where in other parts of the country they get almost 5x - 5 times -  that much before tips.

 

 

Williams, 50, has worked mostly at upscale bistros in Atlanta, Ga., earning $2.13 an hour before tips. It's the most frustrating element of a job she largely enjoys, she says. That miniscule wage is usually swallowed up by taxes, leaving her to live on her tips, which can fluctuate from week to week.

 

 

...But since 1966, a sub-section of the minimum wage has existed for people who work for gratuities, known as the "tipped minimum wage," which Congress last bumped to $2.13 per hour in 1991. Some states have increased the tipped minimum wage on their own as well –– and Washington, like six other states, has no tipped minimum wage at all, so servers earn a full $9.04 before gratuities. About half of all states, however, continue to allow restaurants to pay servers $2.13, provided they make up the difference if the server doesn't reach the standard minimum wage after tips.

 

The cost of living, meanwhile, has continued to climb.

 

"As far as income goes, I made more 20 years ago than I do now, effectively," says Williams, who has a bachelor's degree but prefers to work in restaurants. "My affluent friends, their jaws drop when I tell them."

 

 

Minimum Wage For Restaurant Servers Remains Stagnant For 20 Years Under Industry Lobbying

 

http://www.irle.berkeley.edu/press/20120602_huffpost.html

 

 

 

 

In my opinion, that is really, really sad in a country such as the US.

 

My daughter can bring in $100 or more a night in tips  ON TOP OF a wage  that pays her $40-90 a day depending on how many hours she works.   Tha'ts quite a difference simply because of what state you live in.

 

 

And this isn't just about tips.  It's far more insidious:

 

 

Report: Sexual harassment rampant in the restaurant industry 10/07/14 

 

The next time you go out to eat, you’re virtually guaranteed to have a waitress who has been sexually harassed while at work.

 

That’s according a new report from the Restaurant Opportunities Center-United, a nonprofit group dedicated to improving conditions and raising wages for restaurant workers. The report found “endemic” levels of harassment, with more than 90% of women working in restaurants as tipped employees dealing with it in some form.

 

Women working in states with the lowest minimum wages for jobs that include tips are twice as likely to be sexually harassed as those that keep the full minimum wage, the report also noted.

 

...“If you’re completely dependent on your customers for your wages, the way you’re evaluated by your customers is paramount,” Teo Reyes, National Research Director of ROC-United told msnbc. “If someone says something you don’t like, you’re just going to let it slide, put a smile on it and ignore it. You don’t want to lose your wages, you want to pay your bills.”

 

The survey looked at 688 current and former restaurant workers in 39 states, and it found that no part of the job was safe from harassment. Two-thirds of those surveyed reported dealing with unwanted attention from management, and some 80 percent reported harassment from colleagues and customers.  It also found that while women dealt with more harassment than men, “scary” and “unwanted” sexual behavior was still a part of the job for 47% of men who discussed their experiences.

 

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/report-sexual-harassment-rampant-the-restaurant-industry

 

 

My daughter just changed jobs because of harassment including sexual harassment.   She had the luxury of doing so.   The manager that harassed her was transferred.  His manager was demoted.  There were several witnesses so she was fortunate in that aspect. If she was in one of the very low paying positions, I don't know what she would have been able to do.  This report hits a bit too close to home.

 

 

 

 

[FresnoJoe]

My daughter just changed jobs because of harassment including sexual harassment.   She had the luxury of doing so.   The manager that harassed her was transferred.  His manager was demoted.  There were several witnesses so she was fortunate in that aspect. If she was in one of the very low paying positions, I don't know what she would have been able to do.  This report hits a bit too close to home.

 

 

Praying~!

[Guest shiloh357]

Yes, I meant $2.00 an hour.   But she agreed to work for $2.00 plus tips and she makes more money than people who make many times more per hour, so again, she is not being cheated and is quite happy doing what she is doing.  Her husband has a college degree and makes less than her at his job.

 

She makes more than the employees who make min. wage at the Olive Garden. 

[Guest shiloh357]

I think what is interesting is that the very people who were screeching to the heavens about how they needed more money per hour and those who were claiming that raising the min wage would bring people off of welfare and gov't assistance are now claiming that they want less hours so that they can remain on gov't.   assistance.  It just shows how irrational and stupid the Left  really is. 

[thereselittleflower]

Yes, I meant $2.00 an hour.   But she agreed to work for $2.00 plus tips and she makes more money than people who make many times more per hour, so again, she is not being cheated and is quite happy doing what she is doing.  Her husband has a college degree and makes less than her at his job.

 

She makes more than the employees who make min. wage at the Olive Garden. 

 

 

Does she have a choice on wages if she wants to be a server?  Agreeing to something you have no choice on is not truly a free choice.  She can't negotiate a better wage.

 

In contrast, my daughter, at Olive Garden here would make over $9/hour before tips.   That translates into hundreds of dollars of lost wages for your friend's wife every week.

 

Why is there such inequity across the United States in "tipped" jobs?

 

My daughter's wage opens up doors for her that your friend's wife's wage closes.

 

And they do the same job and  live in the same country.