Comment by prng2021
1 day ago
I see multiple posts making your same claim and it's sad to see how many people live in a wealth bubble and haven't researched the facts at all. When I was young worked in the restaurant industry in a state that has a tipped minimum wage. The hourly pay for waiters and waitresses was and still is under $3/hr in that state. The rest of your pay is completely dependent on tips. This is the reality folks. Not the tech company that gives you free catered lunch.
This page has a table of the many states that have a shockingly low tipped minimum wage:
“The rest or your pay is completely dependent on tips” is not accurate. You seem to focus on the hourly rate, but you don’t seem to mention that those same people are still guaranteed Federal minimum wage if they don’t make enough tips to exceed that amount. Seems odd to not be aware of that after having “worked in the restaurant industry in a state that had a tipped wage”. Moreover, it is a Federal tipped wage, not based on a state law. State law can only require higher tipped wages or disallow such wages, but is not the law that permits them.
> haven't researched the facts at all.
I have researched the facts. The percentage of people working minimum wage jobs is around 1% as of 2023. Likely under 1% now if the trend holds: https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2023/
> When I was young…
We’re talking about wages in 2025, not when you were young.
The point is that the wage landscape has changed a lot from what you’re remembering.
> This is the reality folks. Not the tech company that gives you free catered lunch.
No, I’m not talking about salaried jobs. I’m specifically talking about hourly wage jobs
As for tipped jobs: Many efforts to eliminate tipped jobs have floundered specifically because the people in tipped jobs prefer their earnings with tips included. This is partially due to the way that tip earnings are underreported significantly on taxes when people pay in cash (untracked by computer systems) so actual tipped earnings are higher.
Regardless, looking at tipped minimum wages is very dishonest because the entire definition is that these people are also getting tips. Employers are obligated to make up any difference if their tips do not bring them up to the minimum wage.
Tipped minimum wage doesn’t literally mean someone can earn $3/hour. It’s right there in the first paragraph of that Wikipedia page you linked.
When you say the wage landscape has changed, yep you're right. It's continuing to get worse:
https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-...
As for states with a tipped minimum wage, let me ask you a math problem. Imagine you work at a restaurant and people tip 15-20% per table regardless of the state you work in. Would you make more money each day if your base wage was $3/hr like the tipped minimum wage in Pennsylvania or $16/hr like in California?