2008 Woodie Awards
Servers could get stiffed by proposed bill
Bill may freeze wage for restaurant workers earning over $30 a month in tips
Judy McClintock, News Editor
|
A current bill in Oregon has restaurant owners and employed wait staff in debate with one another.
If passed, HB 2409 would allow restaurant owners to freeze the state's minimum-wage rate for workers earning more than $30 per month in tips.
Advocates of the bill say the freeze would allow restaurant owners to save money and rein in labor and employee-tax costs.
Opponents argue that future minimum-wage increases would diminish, making restaurant workers rely more on tips for income.
“House Bill 2409 is not a step backward,” said Bill Perry, director of government relations for the Oregon Restaurant Association (ORA), “it deals with the future and a restaurant's ability to hire more staff, provide more benefits, and increase wages for non-tipped employees.”
According to Perry, every time Oregon's minimum-wage escalates, servers who rely heavily on tips as income receive an added bonus, whereas “back of the house” employees, such as cooks and dishwashers, do not.
“It is an issue of fairness,” Perry said. “I don't think anyone from either side wants to take tip income away. The question is: How do we make things fair for everyone?”
Ray Stratton, manager of the North Dallas Bar and Grill in Dallas, is in favor of HB 2409.
According to Stratton, the bill would help restaurants save money and disperse it more fairly.
“The kitchen staff needs to be paid more,” he said, “and we would like to see it [the bill] go through to lower prices of food.”
With an escalating minimum-wage in recent years, Stratton said prices of food at the Grill have had to go up.
“We have had to give the raises to the wait staff,” he said, “who don't really need the raise and who would work without it.”
Oregon is one of seven states in the country that does not put a limit on the minimum-wage for restaurant workers who are eligible for tips.
The Oregon minimum wage was set via a ballot initiative in 2002. This increases the wage each January based on the Consumer Price Index.
Servers in the restaurant business who are opposed to the bill would no longer receive the automatic annual pay increases if HB 2409 is put into effect.
Elizabeth Holt, a part-time server and hostess at Marco Polo restaurant in Salem told the Statesman-Journal newspaper last week at a public hearing that she and others with whom she works depend on tips to make ends meet.
“I know of single women with three kids they're trying to support,” she said. “It's not easy.”
Stratton said, “Opponents against the bill are trying to say you can't make a living.
With tips, he said, his minimum-wage wait staff are making anywhere between $16 and $20 an hour.
The Oregon AFL-CIO, however, stresses that not all wait servers are making such high amounts.
According to their website, the average pay including both wages and tips for waiters/waitresses and bartenders in Oregon last year was $8.50/hour and $8.76/hour respectively.
“No one is getting rich on minimum wage,” said Tim Nesbitt, Oregon AFL-CIO President.
In an effort to spread their word and gain support in opposition to the bill, the Oregon AFL-CIO has recently taken up an unusual approach of giving away “tip-cards”.
The group has printed tens of thousands of “tip cards,” which are wallet-sized cards to be left in tips jars and tip trays in restaurants across the state.
“Working people are not aware of these attacks on their paychecks,” said Steve Lanning of the Oregon AFL-CIO, “so we are taking the message right to them by leaving a little something extra in the tip jar.”
Despite debates, HB 2409 still has to go through the Democrat-controlled Senate and be signed by Gov. Kulongoski.
-The Statesman-Journal contributed to this article