Restaurants have good nights...and bad nights. Some servers make $100+ a shift, some make $12- a shift.
When I first started serving the wage per hour was $2.13, exactly half of minimum wage. ($5.25 an hour / 2 = $2.12.5 - Round up for the $0.00.5 = $2.13). Why has this not changed? The new minimum wage is now $5.85 an hour....yet server wage remains the same? I know paycheck-wise it wouldn't make much of a difference...but surely tax-wise at the end of the year it would. (An extra $0.30 {half of the minimum wage raise} an hour X a 6 hour shift = $1.80...now if you work 5 days a week that is $9.00 a week ... which is $468 a year).
All that aside, most servers must PAY the IRS at the end of the year due to tips. Wouldn't this extra $468 a year in wages help them out some? Shouldn't they get a pay increase as the federal minimum wage goes up? And how many restaurants ACTUALLY compensate them if they do not meet the $5.85 an hour minimum wage?? (I assume this is a per pay period deal)
"The federal minimum wage in the United States has been $5.85 per hour since July 24, 2007. Many states and municipalities have minimum wages higher than this (see List of U.S. state minimum wages), but some U.S. territories (such as American Samoa) are exempt. Some types of labor are also exempt, and tipped labor must be paid a minimum of $2.13 per hour, as long as the hourly wage plus tipped income result in a minimum of $5.85 per hour." - Wikipedia
"The last increase on July 24, 2007 was the first of three steps of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. It was signed into law on May 25, 2007 as a rider to the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007. The act will raise the federal minimum wage twice more: to $6.55 per hour on July 24, 2008, and to $7.25 per hour on July 24, 2009. The bill also contains almost $5 billion in tax cuts for small businesses." - Wikipedia
This is ridiculous, as the
FEDERAL MINIMUM WAGE changes, then so should the laws for tipped employee's be changed. What happens when the minimum wage is $7.25 an hour...servers still get $2.13....
*Sorry, just a late night rant, I have served and bartended for 13 years myself and still do not understand these laws. Tip your servers and bartenders well...they may have not even made minimum wage yet that night.
P.S. My math may be off as I have had a very long night at work, dang Christmas decorations, hehe.
-Scott