Dimitri wrote:
> "jmcquown" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Kathy wrote:
>>> A new twist on a well-worn subject - Senator Rick Santorum proposes
>>> to remove all state requirements for a minimum wage for jobs in
>>> which employees can expect tips. Restaurant owners could then "hire"
>>> serving staff for nothing but the tips they hope to make. More info
>>> on his bill he
>>> http://www.nathannewman.org/laborblo...e/002263.shtml . If
>>> you're not fond of the American custom of tipping, perhaps you'll
>>> let him know your opinion on this idea.
>>
>> Unless something has changed (quite possible), restaurant owners
>> already don't have to pay minimum wage to tipped employees. I never
>> earned minimum
>> wage when I worked as a server; the tips were expected (ha!) to make
>> up the
>> difference and then taxed based on my daily food sales figures
>> regardless of
>> whether I made that much in tips or not. The only time I made more
>> than minimum wage in a restaurant setting was when I was working as
>> a hostess and
>> also handled the computer accounting stuff in the back of the house.
>>
>> Jill
>
> See below:
>
>
> http://www.restaurant.org/legal/law_minwage.cfm
>
> Restaurants covered by federal minimum wage law (a.k.a. the Fair Labor
> Standards Act, or FLSA) are required to pay hourly employees at least
> $5.15 an hour, and tipped employees a cash wage of at least $2.13 an
> hour.
> You may be required to pay a rate higher than that, though. States
> are free to set their own wage rates - and when they do, employers
> who are covered by the FLSA must pay whichever rate, state or
> federal, is most favorable to the employee.
>
> *********************
>
>
>
> One of the difficulties is the "tipped" employees usually "hide" some
> income from the government for which the do not pay taxes. At the
> Palm in Calif. the Mercedes in the parking lot belong to the waiters
> not the patrons. LOL.
>
> Dimitri

Good lord it's still $2.13 an hour?! And I haven't waited a table since the
1980's! But with the IRS provision that tips be based on sales, no way can
a server get out of reporting tips even if they didn't earn the 20% of sales
in a shift. I used to do that accounting for the restaurant, too. Also
divvied out tip-shares for the bussers, hostesses and bar-backs.

Jill