Celebrities, union activists, and politicians demand that the government raise the minimum wage for restaurant workers. They are upset that in 43 states, tipped workers can be paid a lower minimum wage than other workers. The logic behind the lower minimum is that the tips make up the difference.
That’s not good enough for people like Buffalo University law professor Nicole Hallett. She tells John Stossel that, “the problem with tips is that they’re very inconsistent.” She wants to “require restaurant owners to pay the same hourly wage that all other employers have to pay.”
But many restaurant workers like the current system. Waitress Alcieli Felipe tells John Stossel, “don’t change the rules on tips…. If you raise the minimum wage, it’ll be harder for restaurants to keep the same amount of employees.” She works at Lido, a restaurant in Harlem, and says, with tips, she makes $25 an hour, “by the end of the year I made around 48 to 50,000 dollars.”
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The views expressed in this video are solely those of John Stossel; his independent production company, Stossel Productions; and the people he interviews. The claims and opinions set forth in the video and accompanying text are not necessarily those of Reason.
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