McDonald’s is criticizing the restaurant industry for allowing tipped wages, which let managers pay servers less than the minimum wage as long as customer tips make up the difference.

Kempczinski also noted that in many states, sit-down restaurants are allowed to pay servers as little as $2.13 per hour, a federal minimum set in 1991, with tips making up the rest of their pay.

“So right now, there’s an uneven playing field. If you are a restaurant that allows tips or has tips as part of your equation, you’re essentially getting the customer to pay for your labor and you’re getting an extra benefit from no taxes on tips,” Kempczinski said.

  • fartographer@lemmy.world
    101·
    4 days ago

    Just an fyi, $2.13 isn’t all people get paid in food service industries. It’s part of something called “tip credit.” The national or state minimum wage remains the absolute minimum. What this means is that your tips supplement the restaurant’s duties to pay you minimum wage.

    If you make at least minimum wage at the end of your pay period, factoring in tips, then the restaurant doesn’t have to pay you more. If you make less with your tips, the restaurant is financially responsible to make you whole.

    This is one of the reasons that tip-pooling should be illegal as well.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      It also needs to be pointed out this is a legal requirement, but it doesn’t always happen. If they don’t make up this difference it’s one form of wage theft, the most common form of theft in the US.

    • woodytrombone@lemmy.world
      8·
      4 days ago

      If you make less with your tips, the restaurant is financially responsible to make you whole. fires you the next week, in practice.

    • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
      51·
      4 days ago

      isn’t all people get paid in food service industries.

      Of course, but we all know that tipping is used pretty much everywhere to make up for poor wages. The vast majority of the industry does this, and it should be dismantled and rebuilt, so people are treated (and paid) as people!

      • fartographer@lemmy.world
        3·
        3 days ago

        As an ex service employee who had tips split and didn’t know about tip credit yet, I know that the options are to either get paid as a person, or treated as a person. The number of people who told me that they didn’t “do tips” but were willing to give me a high five as a substitute was as understandable as it was upsetting.

        • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
          4·
          3 days ago

          I’m sorry you went through that. The entire pay model is crap. The industry needs to scrap it and start over. It’s unbelievable, actually.

          The good thing is, there are plenty of examples around the world (outside of North America) where service workers are treated and paid like people!