A living wage because anyone who works should make a living wage and tips because service work deserves to be specifically recognized by the recipients.

and eliminating tipping altogether. Pay them a living wage for the work they do, period.

is an artist in many ways and deserves high pay (like many top of class servers make) for having an actual skill that transcends not fucking up a hamburger or having someone repeat themselves 5 times at the drive thru squawk box.

These are two different things.

So what? I don't normally form my opinions based on how many people will agree with me.

I don't tip because I get great service, I tip because I know that servers rely on tips to even make it to the already inadequate minimum wage. If they're being paid a living wage for the work they do, I see no reason to tip. Even lousy service will result in 15% from me, anything better than lousy is 18%-25%.

I'm not interested in "artistry" from a server...I'm interested in someone who is pleasant, gets the order right, keeps my drinks filled, brings the right food to the table and doesn't make me wait 30 minutes for my check after I've finished eating.

Including tips.If tips combined with the tipped server minimum doesn't reach the actual minimum, the employer must pay the difference.

Bottom line is that servers make the same minimum as everyone else.

If you believe that, I have a bridge you might be interested in.

Servers report their tips to employers (often a fraction of the actual total). You are pretending that there is some widespread wage crime going on? You do know that every state has wage enforcement, no?

To inform yourself of wage theft in the restaurant industry check http://www.rifuture.org/wage-theft-in-the-restaurant-industry.html

I left.

This will not be affected by a higher minimum then, eh?

And that you had a car and/or decent public transportation to find another job quickly.

is incorrect.

Or raising it to like $5 if the actual minimum wage is 10 or 12 or wherever it might land someday? Are you advocating server minimum wage exceed the general minimum wage?

--median income has been flat for 40 years

Generally separate issues...the server minimum which is the same as the general minimum, the fact there are probably criminal employers who will be criminal employers regardless the minimum wage, and now the overall issue of stagnant and declining wages....which is the actual issue....take care of that and the rest will take care of itself. 5% unemployment does far more to improve wages than any minimum wage increase....the result is a minimum wage increase.

Due to your one incident back in high school where you quit a job where you didn't get paid. Your experience trumps the mountains of documented wage theft. O.k.

With 90% of customers paying with plastic as opposed to cash, the opportunity for under reporting tips has all but disappeared. As a bartender, it's much easier as folks still use a lot of cash when buying a beer or single drink.

"You are pretending that there is some widespread wage crime going on?" No, you're pretending there's not.

“The country suffers an epidemic of wage theft, as large numbers of employers violate minimum-wage, overtime, and other wage and hour laws with virtual impunity,” University of Oregon economist Gordon Lafer wrote in the report. Especially hard-hit are restaurant workers. The federal tipped minimum wage is $2.13 an hour — although employers are legally required to pay tipped workers at least minimum wage when tips do not meet the hourly full minimum wage, enforcement is weak and disorganized. - See more at: http://rocunited.org/stolen-wages/#sthash.chee6f7G.dpuf

These are almost always state jurisdictions. My state actively investigates all wage complaints. If employers are violating wage laws and the violations are not being investigated/enforced, that is another issue completely unrelated to what the actual minimum wage law is...the law is fine IMO...the amount paid is arguable for sure, the logic is sound, just, and much better for most servers than simply reducing them to minimum wage. ... IMO.

The purpose for the $2 minimum is to offset taxes from taking home a pocket full of cash....not so the server gets a paycheck. I currently pay $3.50, if I paid the $2.15 or whatever servers would owe taxes every single pay period....this amount generally leaves a few bucks on the check after taxes based on average tips reported. My servers report average $8.50 and that's fine with me....I've had many high school juniors start with me and stay through an undergraduate degree...they stay because there are few other opportunities that pay as well...and we have a family like relationship with each other...we eat together after every shift and often have alumni show up to eat with us...

or even heard about it happening.

and i know the industry. i have never, ever seen it done. even in places where either lower than min tips are common, or where excessive "side work" means lots of off the floor time.

your sig says sanders/warren. both of them are in favor of a solid minimum wage. why arent you?
you are waving off industry wide wage theft. sheesh.

It can't possibly happen without tying it to cost of living....a "solid minimum wage" in NYC wouldn't/can't resemble a "solid minimum wage" in Goodland Kansas...

That however hasn't a thing to do with this conversation. As for wage theft, that hasn't a thing to do with how tipped employees are accounted for...nee rules for waitstaff minimum wage will have zero effect on criminal employers.

It does happen, just not often enough.

http://www.dol.gov/whd/media/press/whdprssToc.asp?topic=RST#CurrentTopic

if i could get odds like that on anything, i would be a bettin fool.

Most are settled without hoopla. The point of the link was you stated that you had never seen it happen or heard about it happening. Now you have.

i have worked in the industry myself, and have had many family members and friends in the industry. some people dont even know they are entitled.
that some get sued is a good thing. but how many do it voluntarily, as a matter of course? good luck finding that unicorn.

and it's getting hard for employers to get away with it. The only real solution though is to eliminate the incentive by getting rid of the server subminimum wage.

tho i have to say that i have learned to tip in cash, even when i pay w credit. especially anywhere i suspect their might be wage theft going on, like a lot of the chain restaurants. those tips on the card dont always get where they are going. and sticking the employee with the privilege is common.

but you are correct it is still easier to catch those thieves with the electronic trail. unfortunately it is more often used to catch servers who are skimping on their taxes.

the worst part of that low wage is that many places overstaff because it doesnt cost them jack. especially on those rare nights when the money is gonna be really fat. same pie, smaller slices for all.

I am strongly in favor of having a single minimum, living wage. I would still tip, since hell, for many years I assumed that my servers were making the published minimum wage and not the shadow "tipped" minimum wage that I didn't know about and still tipped as generously as I could afford.

Tips are a gift, not a wage.

The only variations I would entertain would be perhaps 15-20% less for actual student dependents living at home and certainly the right of local communities having a higher min due to costs in the region.

we're in the 20% tipper class

I remember when I was in the navy and worked part time parking cars at the Bahia hotel in San Diego. this was back in '68 and our pay was 40 cents an hour but we'd bring home 20 to 50 bucks a night depending on how big of a convention they were hosting, all from tips. My navy pay at the time was one two week pay period I'd get 22 bucks, the other would be 21 bucks.

Worked at the Warner Springs Resort after that and my base pay was 40 cents an hour but I'd bring home 20 bucks plus a night, for 4 to 5 hours of busing tables. Navy base pay was the same as I said earlier.

I liked working for tips mainly.

I do agree with what you're saying though. My base pay of 40 cents was a lot closer to what a full time employee made then, than what the people working tables make today with their 2 buck something an hour base pay.

Minnesota. If we can do it, all States can do it.

Gee, funny how that works.

and tied to inflation, Washington is higher than that....

ffs, half the minimum wage is too much for the bastards?