Having the 'haves' help the 'have-nots'

[Don John of Austria]

Tipping industries are specificly excluded from the minimum wage law.

[ironmonk]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' date='Nov 17 2004, 02:08 PM'] No, restaurants do not have to pay minimum wage, because tips are counted as wages. [/quote]
I work in the HR industry... I've been in the HR industry for about 6 years. I got my start in it doing payroll and handling HR issues for hundreds of companies.

[url="http://www.goNELCO.com"]http://www.goNELCO.com[/url] is our website.

I know the labor laws... what I wrote is correct.

What I was saying is that if the servers tips and hourly wages do not equal minimum wage, the restaurants must, by law, make up for the difference.

[quote]It's illegal for servers to be paid less than minimum wage. The restaurant owners must pay them to make up the difference to take them to minimum wage. [/quote]

The above quote does not say "restaurants have to pay minimum wage".

"for servers to be paid" = total payment = wages + tips


God Bless,
ironmonk

[ironmonk]

[url="http://www.dol.gov/elaws/faq/esa/flsa/002.htm"]http://www.dol.gov/elaws/faq/esa/flsa/002.htm[/url]

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) sets a federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour for covered, nonexempt employees. An employer of a tipped employee is only required to pay $2.13 an hour in direct wages if that amount plus the tips received equals at least the federal minimum wage, the employee retains all tips and the employee customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips. If an employee's tips combined with the employer's direct wages of at least $2.13 an hour do not equal the federal minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference.

Some states have minimum wage laws specific to tipped employees. When an employee is subject to both the federal and state wage laws, the employee is entitled to the provisions which provides the greater benefits.

[Good Friday]

I really don't know all the in's and out's of economics. Math was my worst subject in high school, and I will certainly never be an economic genius. I just don't have the math skills for it -- I'm lucky if I can add and subtract without a calculator, frankly. My skills were always more language-oriented.

What I do know is what I see around me. My best friend sometimes doesn't make minimum wage because her job waitressing with Steak N' Shake doesn't pay minimum wage, and on slow days she doesn't make that in tips. They don't compensate her for the difference. Yes, we do have the FAFSA form around here like everyone else, but what I've seen around me (myself included) is that the government always seems to expect the family to pay just enough that they can't pay it, leaving many middle class children especially unable to go to college or very hard pressed to pay for it. My friend Eva had to become an Army Reservist to pay for her education, and now she's missing that education to be in Iraq. Somehow, I'm finding myself less and less impressed with an economic situation that puts young people in these predicaments. Eva may never come home, and she's in this situation because she needed money that she otherwise couldn't get in order to better her life. If she doesn't come home from Iraq, the government will have lied to her and she won't have a better life -- she simply won't have any life at all. Neither will her sister and brother, or her parents.

What I see around me is that the economic plans of both parties haven't worked for the people in my community. The Democrats' tax-and-spend plan hasn't worked, and the Republicans' more conservative tax cut plan hasn't worked either. What I'd like to see is either of the parties, or both, come up with a plan that works for everyone. Surely that's possible.