Tipping was Already Kinda Ridiculous
A few days ago I posted " Tipping is Getting Ridiculous", a blog entry about some of the recent excesses of the growing custom of tipping in the US. The thing is, tipping is not just getting ridiculous, it already is ridiculous.
Tipping was almost nonexistent in the US up through the Civil Ware era. It was brought over by wealthy travelers in the late 1800s who saw it in Europe- where it was a vestige of aristocracy and master/serf economic systems. The wealthy started doing it in this country to seem more sophisticated. (Evidence also exists there were racist motivations to suppress the wages of Black people in service jobs.) Except as European countries modernized into democracies with advanced economies in the mid-20th century and left tipping behind- instead requiring employers to pay all employees fair wages- the US enshrined tipping into law.
Minimum wage law was created by the federal government in 1937 as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act. That Act excluded several categories of labor, though. Employers were able to continue paying restaurant workers as little as nothing. That didn't change until 1966, when minimum wage law was amended to require employers to pay a minimum base wage. Called the tipped wage it was originally half of the full minimum wage, though it was last increased in 1991 to $2.13/hour. As poor as the federal minimum wage has been at keeping up with costs of living, it is $7.25 today. The tipped minimum wage remains $2.13, just 30% of that.
States and localities are able to set minimum wages higher than the federal minimum wage. California, for example, chose to abolish the two-tier system of tipped wages. All employees must be paid at least full minimum wage. And statewide that wage is $15.50. In the city of Sunnyvale, where I live, it's $17.95. But at least 19 states retain the tipped minimum wage of $2.13.
Tipping was almost nonexistent in the US up through the Civil Ware era. It was brought over by wealthy travelers in the late 1800s who saw it in Europe- where it was a vestige of aristocracy and master/serf economic systems. The wealthy started doing it in this country to seem more sophisticated. (Evidence also exists there were racist motivations to suppress the wages of Black people in service jobs.) Except as European countries modernized into democracies with advanced economies in the mid-20th century and left tipping behind- instead requiring employers to pay all employees fair wages- the US enshrined tipping into law.
Minimum wage law was created by the federal government in 1937 as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act. That Act excluded several categories of labor, though. Employers were able to continue paying restaurant workers as little as nothing. That didn't change until 1966, when minimum wage law was amended to require employers to pay a minimum base wage. Called the tipped wage it was originally half of the full minimum wage, though it was last increased in 1991 to $2.13/hour. As poor as the federal minimum wage has been at keeping up with costs of living, it is $7.25 today. The tipped minimum wage remains $2.13, just 30% of that.
States and localities are able to set minimum wages higher than the federal minimum wage. California, for example, chose to abolish the two-tier system of tipped wages. All employees must be paid at least full minimum wage. And statewide that wage is $15.50. In the city of Sunnyvale, where I live, it's $17.95. But at least 19 states retain the tipped minimum wage of $2.13.