In your editorial: “No need to increase minimum wages for tipped workers,” you state, “we’re all for workers’ rights” and “for equal and fair pay” and “for people who work hard should be provided with a good living.”In this reader’s opinion, those are just empty words.
The real economic world is very far from providing millions of wage earners “with a good living wage.”
You state the NJ Restaurant Association opposes a minimum wage increase, which is presently $2.13 per hour for tipped workers. When has the restaurant association ever supported a minimum wage increase? The restaurant association president states that tipped workers are guaranteed to make at least the state’s minimum wage of $8.25. If they make less than that in tips, the employer “is obligated to make up the difference.” Perhaps that may be true in a perfect world, where most wage earners do not live and work.
The big question is what restaurants belong to the NJ Restaurant Association? Certainly not the ones where the majority of tipped restaurant employees work.
Unfortunately we are in a race to the bottom, where $5 doesn’t buy $4 anymore.
If we can’t find the courage and decency to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers, then lets suggest when restaurant patrons go out to eat and get treated with service and courtesy, please leave a proper tip of 20 percent. So perhaps we can get closer to the stated goal of equal and fair pay for all workers.
