Why do waitresses make minimum wage

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Toggle navigation. Tipped Minimum Wage Laws by State 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.

Forcing service workers to rely on tips for their wages creates tremendous instability in income flows, making it more difficult to budget or absorb financial shocks. Furthermore, research has also shown that the practice of tipping is often discriminatory , with white service workers receiving larger tips than black service workers for the same quality of service. Yet in the states where they are paid the regular minimum wage before tips equal treatment states , the poverty rate for waitstaff and bartenders is only This strongly indicates that the lower tipped minimum wage is driving these differences in outcomes for tipped workers.

Tipped work is overwhelmingly low-wage work, even in Washington, D. Some tipped workers at high-end restaurants do well, but they are the exception, not the norm.

At that time, D. In other words, the typical D. Proponents of maintaining a lower tipped minimum wage may note that the average hourly wage of waitstaff in D. The fact that the average is so far from the median wage is indicative of significant wage inequality among district waitstaff. 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.

Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Federal Register. Industrial Commission of Arizona. Colorado Department of Labor and Education.

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Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Louisiana 9. Mississippi 9. North Carolina 4. South Carolina 9. Tennessee 9. Some local governments set minimum wage rates higher than their respective state minimum wage.

Such differential provisions are not displayed in this table. Tip credit is not permitted unless the employer obtains from each employee, either monthly or each pay period, a signed certification of the amount of tips received. The state minimum wage law applies only to employers with six or more employees and to state agencies.