Many people scrape by on less than minimum wage. The minimum wage in the US is $7.25 per hour. Tipped workers like waitresses have a separate minimum wage. The federal tipped minimum wage is $2.13 per hour. There is a law in place where if servers don’t get to the minimum wage that employers are supposed to make up the difference. Restaurant owners use insidious ways to not have to pay the remainder. The law is also hardly enforced.
This tentative pay puts a lot of stress on tipped workers. What they make in a day depends on if people want to come to their restaurant or not. It also depends on if people order more or less expensive things. Another factor is if people tip 20% or if they even tip at all. Opulent people don’t have to stress about where their next paycheck is coming from.
The minimum wage for tipped workers hasn’t budged since 1991. This causes a problem because of inflation. If I bought something for $10 in 1991, that same thing would cost $18.84. Inflation happens because the demand for goods exceeds the amount of goods companies produce. To sum it all up, inflation means that the worth of money declines.
Tipped workers aren’t able to live off of their wages. Even though they make the same amount, the worth of their money is not as much. This means that they need to rely on other things to help financially. Some things that help tipped workers is health care, food stamps, and subsidized housing.
In a Time magazine feature about the unfortunate situations of tipped workers, the authors use Christina Munce’s story to spread awareness. She is a bereft tipped worker who is also a single mother. She is on food stamps and Medicaid. She also lives in a subsidized two-bedroom apartment.
Munce’s story is a story about sympathy. The authors present her as barely scraping by on what she makes in order to interest the audience. She usually ends up making below the federal minimum wage. She does all she can to provide for her daughter.
The authors are trying to raise awareness for tipped workers. They also present solutions for the problem. One major solution that makes sense is to raise the minimum wage to correspond with inflation. If the minimum wage had risen with inflation then they would be making $6 an hour. If the government did this there would be trade-offs. The government would repeal the law that states restaurant owners must make up the difference if tipped workers don’t make it to the federal minimum wage. If the government deploys this solution it could help tipped workers not have any tentative pay anymore. Another solution everyone can participate in is to always tip. The only reason you shouldn’t tip is if the server is terrible. Instead of not tipping, you can tip a smaller amount.