Florida has a new minimum wage – $6.40 an hour. That’s no where near a living wage in this region, but it probably means a bump in salary for those whose wage is based on the minimum. I’m sure it will be appreciated.
Something I just learned is that Tip Based Jobs actually have a separate minimum – $3.88 an hour. Remember that next time you stiff someone on your tip at a hotel or restaurant.
My first job was waiting tables at a sit-down fast food chain here in Jersey. I made the then-waiter/waitress wage of $2.13/hour. Since I was bringing out burgers, fries and diet cokes, the tips weren’t huge. But they were still more than I was getting in my paycheck. Nowadays, I cringe whenever I see anyone undertip or, even worse, not tip at all. As a rule, 15% of the pre-tax price is my bare minimum for the worst service ever. On behalf of all once-and-future tip-reliant workers, thanks for pointing this out!
Generally, I start with a 20% base for my tips and work up or down from there. For the most part, the tips that I leave usually tend to average right around that 20% mark. However, I have left more and, once or twice, I have left nothing.
I’m certainly not going to reward poor service from someone with a tip! If they’re so worried about their paycheck at the end of the week, well, then it’s up to them to make sure they deliver at least the bare minimum in service.
That’s too bad. The min. wage causes unemployment. The first thing a legal min wage does is make it illegal to work if your skills are worth less than the arbitrary minimum. As with anything else, labor no exception, when you make something more expensive, people and demand and consume less of it.
Chris
http://amateureconblog.blogspot.com/
In WV at least, the employer has to make the difference up for the minimum. So, if the employee makes $3 / hour, and receives no tips, the employer makes the difference up. Personally, I don’t tip on principle. I don’t think that tips should be taxed, which they are if the employee is honest, and I think that they should not have a seperate minimum. The laws need to be changed. My tip should be my gift for the person going above and beyond their required duties. My tip is not simply because they did their job.
6.40 was not meant to raise a family with, its just jobs for teenagers, or retierees. It’s nothing more than a token to those that work those jobs, to help keep them off the street. Does it help, lets just say if minimum wage was 15$ in florida it would still be tough to survive. To the guy above that said it costs jobs to raise the wage, your very wrong it actually creates them, by allowing people who work two jobs
to move back to only working one, thus creating a new job. It will also increase productivity thus more than making up for the increase in wage. Unhappy, oppressed,and starving people don’t work very hard. Did you know?
The minimum wage is just a starting wage. It’s a wage so that you can get a job and learn that you need to go to school so that you don’t have to work minimum wage jobs. Raising the minimum wage is a bad idea as it forces manufacturing and other entry level jobs that although low paying — usually have great benefits like tuition reimbursements to move offshore.
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