Why waiters dont get minimum wage

Small employer 2. Nevada 10 With no health insurance benefits provided by employer and received by employee. With health insurance benefits provided by employer and received by employee.

New Hampshire. New Jersey. New Mexico. New York. North Dakota. Rhode Island. People often hear that waiters and waitresses are paid poorly, so therefore customers should leave generous tips because these servers do not even get minimum wage.

Some servers even say that they get paid nothing at all! While tipping is always appreciated, the legal question we assess today is this: are waiters and waitresses exempt?

Second, we have to address the difference between state and federal law. 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.

The federal minimum wage is 7. Everyone, including tipped workers, are guaranteed at least this minimum wage. Tip your waiter! However, many restaurants stiff waiters on minimum wage, and are even unaware of federal regulations. If you are a waiter and you are not making enough tips, according to the law above, and your employer is not paying the difference, then your employer is breaking the law, period. Currently, eight states do not have differential treatments of the tipped workforce in terms of the minimum wage.

To be clear, tipped workers in these equal treatment states receive the full, regular state minimum wage plus tips.

Over the last several years, there has been a great deal of research about the minimum wage and tipped restaurant workers, in particular, and we are going to draw on some of that research to make several key points: 1. In the District of Columbia, women, African American, and Hispanic workers are disproportionately minimum wage workers, including tipped minimum wage workers; 2. Maintaining a separate, lower minimum wage for tipped workers perpetuates racial and gender inequities; 3.

In states that have a lower tipped minimum wage, tipped workers have worse economic outcomes and higher poverty rates than their counterparts in equal treatment states; 4. Tipped work is overwhelmingly low-wage work, even in D.

Wage theft is particularly acute in food and drink service, and restaurants across the country have been found to be in violation of wage and hour laws; 6. Waitstaff have higher take-home pay in equal treatment states than in D. The restaurant industry thrives in equal treatment states. Women, African Americans, and Hispanic workers have disproportionately benefited from minimum wage increases in Washington, D.

Furthermore, contrary to popular opinion, the vast majority of minimum-wage earners are not teenagers or college students working part-time jobs. Research indicates that having a separate, lower minimum wage for tipped workers perpetuates racial and gender inequities, and results in worse economic outcomes for tipped workers.