Republicans Cut Pay for Servers and Bartenders

[Gators312]

Come to think of it, a lot has changed in our country, so should the way DC operates, but it does not change, Why?

Publicly financed elections and an end to gerry-mandered districts will restore Democracy and ensure we don't have a 95% re-election rate of incumbents..........stifling any effective Democratic process.

Wow Faye!  Finally something that all sides should be able to agree on.   Election financing reform and incorporating term limits will improve how our system works.

Are you actually acknowledging that Democrats are capable of exploiting our system in the same ways you accuse the evil Republicans of?  If you are it would be a refreshing change from your usual mantra.

Furthermore on the topic of gerrymandering, I'm still curious how the most recent redistricting allowed Corrine Brown to keep her gerrymandered district ensuring she continues to stay in office funding her family and cronies.  From what I understand of the rules and the recent voter approved amendment regarding redistricting  the districts were to be compact and follow logical geographic boundaries.   I guess I need to do more reading as her district is neither.

IMO we have to hold both sides accountable and not turn a blind eye to their incompetence of running this country.  The goal of the RNC and DNC is to polarize both sides so that the middle will not be able to garner enough support to remove them from power.  They can take turns being in charge and can exploit the system in order to pander to fund their special interests.   There is too much money behind the National Committees and until we stop the $$$ flow they will continue to choose what candidates the voters can choose from.

[Brian Siebenschuh]

A lot of grand ideas being thrown about, but as the subject line of the thread suggests - is it right, in this day and age, for TGI Fridays or Applebee's or The Olive Garden to cut their servers' hourly wage in half?  Down to TWO DOLLARS AN HOUR?  I'm gonna say no.

[KenFSU]

A lot of grand ideas being thrown about, but as the subject line of the thread suggests - is it right, in this day and age, for TGI Fridays or Applebee's or The Olive Garden to cut their servers' hourly wage in half?  Down to TWO DOLLARS AN HOUR?  I'm gonna say no.

Is it right for the government to walk into a private business and tell the owner that minimum wage laws do not apply to their servers, and that they must guarantee them a $2.50 premium over minimum wage or else make up the difference themselves?

I'm gonna say no.

Servers are free to make how ever much their hard work and sales acumen allows, but it is patently ridiculous to insist that servers shouldn't be bound by the same wage floor as every other worker out there.

Do they do something particularly admirable that should guarantee them a $2.50 higher minimum wage than janitors, or garbage men, or ditch diggers, or fast food workers?

[FayeforCure]

A lot of grand ideas being thrown about, but as the subject line of the thread suggests - is it right, in this day and age, for TGI Fridays or Applebee's or The Olive Garden to cut their servers' hourly wage in half?  Down to TWO DOLLARS AN HOUR?  I'm gonna say no.

Is it right for the government to walk into a private business and tell the owner that minimum wage laws do not apply to their servers, and that they must guarantee them a $2.50 premium over minimum wage or else make up the difference themselves?

So let's keep the base at $4.65 rather than lowering it to $2.13. No need to slash the min. wage for servers to 1985 levels and then pretend there is some guarantee of $9.98 per hour 

Why would Corporate Restaurant owners want this bill if it wasn't a guaranteed way to increase their profits at the expense of the workers? People of Faith are against this bill also because of its inhumane consequences.

Just leave the servers' min. wage at $4.65 alreay instead of cutting it by $2.50 to help corporate restaurants.

Florida Servers Could Soon Earn 1985 Minimum Wage

Under SB 2106, a restaurant servers wage could go from $4.65/hr to $2.13/hr


By Christina Hernandez

|  Monday, Feb 20, 2012  |  Updated 10:44 PM EST

The bill to slash tipped employees minimum wage was requested by the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association. According to the South Florida AFL-CIO, many corporate restaurants, like the Outback Steakhouse, like the idea.

Even though it would save restaurants money, the manager of Sal's Italian Ristorante in Miramar said it doesn't matter. His employees work hard and deserve more.

"She's over here running around like crazy. She doesn't know what to do with herself and she's only getting paid $4," Christian Aguilar said about Santana. "If it was up to me, I'd really higher her hourly wage to $7 or something because she's just running around all day."

Restaurants would have to promise that employees would make at least $9.98 an hour with tips to qualify for the new wage. That's something most servers say is impossible to predict in the food business.

"I have tables that will spend like $50 or more and not leave a penny," Santana said.

The bill has already passed one Senate committee, but still has many more steps to go. If approved, it would go into effect in July.

Tipped workers, labor, community, and faith leaders will hold a rally outside the Miami Lakes Outback Steakhouse to urge the restaurant, and other corporate chains, to abandon their support of SB 2106. The rally will begin at 3 p.m. at 15490 NW 77th Court.

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/politics/Florida-servers-could-soon-earn-1985-minimum-wage-139774843.html

[BridgeTroll]

So under current minimum wage laws... if I work a 2 hour lunch shift and get NO tips or have NO customers... I make $9.30.

Under the new rules... same shift and same circumstance I make $19.96.

What am I missing?

[FayeforCure]

So under current minimum wage laws... if I work a 2 hour lunch shift and get NO tips or have NO customers... I make $9.30.

Under the new rules... same shift and same circumstance I make $19.96.

What am I missing?

NO, potentially you'd make $4.26 under the new rules rather than $9.30 under the old rules.

Restaurants would have to promise that employees would make at least $9.98 an hour with tips to qualify for the new wage. That's something most servers say is impossible to predict in the food business.

Promises, promises.........who is going to police this?

[mtraininjax]

Another 4 years of Obama and we will be wishing for days when we complained about these types of laws. The labor issues are out of control and we have brought forth a new era of the lawyer, Chuck and Eddie will be in your minds while you sleep soon!

[FayeforCure]

yup, we should just reduce laborers to nothing at all........... just like Florida's legislature wants waiters and bartenders to make just $2.13 for an hour of their time. These waiters already get paid way toooo much in comparison to the CEOs of the restaurant chains.

Why even bother having fair wages! The greater the wage gap the better. snark

"Republicans will work hard to continue to increase the wage gap," that should definitely be their slogan.

Oh, and they should add: "the more we squeeze you, the better it is for you, cause it toughens you up"

[FayeforCure]

inhumane and barbaric!

A banker left a 1% tip in defiance of 'the 99%' at a Newport Beach restaurant the other week, according to his dining companion and underling who snapped a photo of the receipt and posted it to his blog, Future Ex Banker. (Update: the blog is now offline.)

In posting the photo, the employee gave some background on his boss and the receipt:



Mention the “99%” in my boss’ presence and feel his wrath. So proudly does he wear his 1% badge of honor that he tips exactly 1% every time he feels the server doesn’t sufficiently bow down to his Holiness. Oh, and he always makes sure to include a “tip” of his own.

The "tip" of his own in this case was to tell the server to "get a real job." Pleasant.




The whistleblower's Future Ex-Banker blog (now offline) included additional background on his boss, and some insight into why he would out his gross behavior, likely resulting in an employment status of current ex-banker:

I work in the corporate office of a major bank for a boss who represents everything wrong with the financial industry: blatant disregard and outright contempt for everyone and everything he deems beneath him. On top of that, he’s a complete and utter tool. At the same time, I’m still cashing paychecks, an admittedly willingâ€"albeit reluctantâ€"cog in the wheel of this increasingly ugly industry, so I’ve created this blog as a confessional of sorts. It won’t entirely clear my conscience, but hopefully it’ll help. I’m sure I’ll get fired eventually. Until then, enjoy.

UPDATE: In a conversation with the Huffington Post, Mike Wilcox, the vice president of operations for True Food Kitchen, gave some insight into how the company was treating the incident since the receipt began receiving attention online. Wilcox said that the restaurant was "absolutely" treating the receipt as real, but to confirm its authenticity for certain, they were in the process of tracking down both the physical receipt at the restaurant and the computer-generated copy in their credit card system.

"The first thing we're going to do is to make sure the server is taken care of," Wilcox said, "and make sure the server wasn't treated badly or insufficiently tipped." He explained that they would be asking Breanna, the server named on the receipt, if she recalled the table and how her service was. "If her service was up to the level" they assume their employees would deliver, Wilcox said, "they would do everything they can to make it up to her somehow." Referring to online comments posted about the receipt, Wilcox remarked, "people are asking us to ban the person from the restaurant -- if more information came through on who the person is I first would love to talk to him."

UPDATE II: As many have noted, a true 1% tip correctly rounded to the nearest penny would have been $1.34, leaving this tip just shy of that threshold, mathematically speaking.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/24/banker-1-percent-tip-receipt_n_1299280.html

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Can we be sure that wasn't ChriswUF?     (Although he does tip 20% even after griping about an $18 grilled cheese sandwich.)

The tab was over $100.  It was during lunch time.  There's stemware on the table.  He was at a restaurant that offers free WIFI.....

[KenFSU]

yup, we should just reduce laborers to nothing at all........... just like Florida's legislature wants waiters and bartenders to make just $2.13 for an hour of their time.

Statements like this are just so ludicrously dishonest.

This bill guarantees, by law, that servers will make at least $10 an hour.

Period.

It's a flat-out lie to keep saying that they will only be making $2.13 an hour.

If you don't think the guarantee will be properly policed, your problem should be with the Department of Labor, not with the restaurants themselves.

And, come on, a single businessman shorted a single waitress $17 on a lunch gratuity.

Rude and misplaced? Absolutely.

"Inhumane and barbaric"? Some children in Darfur might disagree.

It's not like this is indicative of society as a whole though, and let's face it, without that "1%", these servers aren't going to be getting a percentage of many $130 lunches.

[FayeforCure]

yup, we should just reduce laborers to nothing at all........... just like Florida's legislature wants waiters and bartenders to make just $2.13 for an hour of their time.

Statements like this are just so ludicrously dishonest.

This bill guarantees, by law, that servers will make at least $10 an hour.

Period.

It's a flat-out lie to keep saying that they will only be making $2.13 an hour.

If you don't think the guarantee will be properly policed, your problem should be with the Department of Labor, not with the restaurants themselves.

And, come on, a single businessman shorted a single waitress $17 on a lunch gratuity.

Rude and misplaced? Absolutely.

"Inhumane and barbaric"? Some children in Darfur might disagree.

It's not like this is indicative of society as a whole though, and let's face it, without that "1%", these servers aren't going to be getting a percentage of many $130 lunches.

That IS the problem..............it's becoming soooo indicative of America today.

No oversight or enforcements of rules in place, AND milking the workers out of every penny.

Ever read Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed?

http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0805063897

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

That IS the problem..............it's becoming soooo indicative of America today.

I'm going to say the problem is there's entirely too much complaining combined with an extra large side of apathy about problems that you have control over when you should be doing your part to fix them.  The picture below is NORMAL for me and most of the people I go out with because we weren't born with a silver spoon in our ass and most of the people I know have been in the industry and know for a fact that the $4+ and hour is fine, but we weren't doing badly at $2.13 either.*  I bet, Faye, that you're the typical 10-15 percenter, but prove us wrong and show us.  Put up or shut up!  If it's so "....inhumane and barbaric...." I'd like to see you make a difference and pay it forward instead of griping on behalf of an industry that you have ZERO knowledge about.

BTW, this was a to-go order, and no, I didn't get any change back.



*It's a rant, so I should be allowed a run-on sentence by the grammar patrol.   

[Jaxson]

Here is what puzzles me about our current political situation.  When we are talking about high-income earners, it is called 'class warfare,' but it is fair game to go after working people and labor unions?  We talk about 'shared sacrifice,' but we seem to only demand it from those who cannot afford to send high-priced lobbyists to wine and dine our friends in Tallahassee and Washington.  I am not some crazy-eyed socialist from Cuba, but a level-headed person who truly wants to know why we are treating working Americans like they are the new welfare queens.  I do not mind supply side economics as long as we are not turning 'trickle down' into 'trickle on people' economics....

[FayeforCure]

That IS the problem..............it's becoming soooo indicative of America today.

I'm going to say the problem is too much fucking bitching about problems and not enough doing your part to fix them. 

No, the problem is that Republicans continuously want to make it harder for the "little guy" while pampering the "big guy."

We might be doing the right thing personally..........as "Republicans" really love to use individual anecdotes, while continuing to condone systemic problems that are repeatedly made worse by the next Republican take away.

They always complain about Democrats and supposed hand-outs, now pejoritivly called "entitlements."

http://theglobalherald.com/the-myth-of-entitlements-and-class-warfare/25922/

Republicans themselves are masters at the take-away's, and then they pretend it's for our own good 

They are robbing the poor and middle class to feed "the rich."

The 99% in servitude to the 1%..........it's your typical 3rd world scenario.

Jaxson just posted something while I as putting together my reply.

And as much as everyone here might think I'm ultra-liberal............when I lived in Europe I was a "Republican"............I voted for the VVD, which stands for For Freedom and Democracy.

Even in the US I have been a Republican in earlier years.........but things have gotten so much out of hand in the US that is run by the corporations and their lobbyists, that I cannot sit idly by and support a party that continues to make things worse for the average American.