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Comment by godelski

2 days ago 

  > I live in California and this isn't true here

I made a longer comment in the main thread[0] because I think there's a tendency for conversations about tipping to degrade as people are making different assumptions based on the different laws of where they're from or grew up.

To be clear:

  - Any worker that is not making *at least the state's minimum wage* (including tips) is suffering from wage theft. (with the exception of Georgia (WTF)) 
  
  - Any worker not receiving a positive valued check are suffering from wage theft
    - Tips only count as a credit and no state lets tips act as a 100% credit to the wage[1]. Credits may be amortized across "workweek" pay.

We always need to make sure we distinguish a conversation about wage theft and a conversation about tipping. I think they are unknowingly being used interchangeably (or as an assumption in a conversation)

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44751537 (sources linked here)

[1] Federal only lets max credit of 70% of min wage. Some states go up to ~75% of min wage, but their minimum wage is higher than federal.

4 comments

godelski

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FireBeyond  2 days ago

Servers, often, seem to think it's our (the customer's) obligation to compensate for the sins of their employer.

"Many restaurant owners illegally don't actually follow this law". "Report them to the DOL". "I don't want to do that. You should tip me to make sure I have a livable wage instead."