It’s a compromise. I’m sure that House Republicans would say so about the bill (HB 258) capping wages for tipped workers that got preliminary approval in the House last week. The original bill proposed to lower the minimum wage for tipped workers from $3.52 an hour to $2.13. Now they’re saying instead that tipped workers will get no raises for inflation like other workers affected by the minimum wage law passed by Missouri voters two years ago. Wages for servers and bellhops will be capped at $3.62.
“A pay cut is still a pay cut regardless if they do it now or if they wait,” said Dreher, a Washington University graduate student. “How stupid do they think we are?”
Those who supported the bill feel that restaurants in these tough times need help lest they go under. Better to have no pay raise than to have no job at all when the cafe you worked at folds, right?
Not right. I’m not unsympathetic to restaurants, but the logical extension of that argument would be that the state totally undo the electorate’s mandate from two years ago. I mean, why pick on waiters? Why not cap the pay of all low end wage earners? Many of them also work for businesses that may go under if their employees get raises for inflation.
No, as it turns out, the voters’ notion of the right thing to do–have mercy on working people struggling to get by–is also the most practical, because the less these workers earn, the less they spend and the more Missouri’s economy is damaged.
I say, let Allen Icet turn loose of those stimulus funds so we can get more dollars circulating in this state. That would make far more sense than telling waitresses to wear out the shoe leather and not worry about whether or not they can make the rent. Give these churchmice some cheese, please.
What do you say we return waiters and waitresses, pay wise, to 1994? Sound hunky-dory to you? It does to Republicans, because that’s the idea of HB 258, which would reduce the base pay of servers from $3.52 an hour to what it was fifteen years ago, $2.13. On average, servers in Missouri make the munificent sum of $16,000 annually. I mean. What do. they. need. with so much money?
Our (n)ever-generous Republican lawmakers will try to justify fleecing restaurant workers by saying that servers are guaranteed the minimum wage of $7.05 in any case. If their tips and their base pay don’t come to that much per hour, the restaurant has to make up the difference. But hold on now: if the base pay is only $2.13, then more of that $7.05 is being supplied by the servers. Republicans are consistent in this much: they can always find a way to make the little guy bear the economic brunt.
Still, you might say, a waitress will get the $7.05. Yes, but part of the lure of wearing out all that shoe leather is the possibility that she will earn more than the minimum wage. If she just wanted to make what any checker at a big box does, she could hire on at Lowe’s and save herself a lot of mileage every shift.
Dana Dreher, a social work major at Washington University who is working her way through school as a waitress, has gotten involved in the Jobs for Justice campaign to resist HB 258. Her attitude is that Missouri voters approved a hike in the minimum wage by an astonishing 76 percent in 2006, and this attempt to screw those that wait tables contravenes the will of the voters.
She found herself testifying at a committee hearing about the bill. Lots of restaurant owners testified, but this one twenty-something student was the only person speaking for the 53,000 servers in the state. It was an intimidating–and infuriating–experience. One restaurateur, for example, claimed that servers often make $20 an hour. Right. For every one of those jobs, thought Dreher, there are ten Denny’s and IHOP jobs. Then came Dana’s turn to speak:
Once the legislature’s spring break (3/16-3/23) is over, the bill is expected to fly through the House, so Jobs with Justice is planning a Lobby Day on the issue for March 24th. The organization hopes it can rally as many as twenty servers to get to Jeff City on that day to talk to persuadable Republicans and to show appreciation for the Democrats who’ve supported the JwJ campaign.
Twenty may not sound like an impressive showing, but consider that most servers in the state have no idea this legislation is pending. Of those who do, think how difficult it is for them to get the time off work. But at least the ones who do go have plans to make a splash. Right now, they’re leaning toward wearing their work uniforms and perhaps even carrying the literature for handouts on serving trays.
The uphill battle of fighting Republican legislators with no respect for working people seems like less of a slog considering that Jay Nixon is sitting on the hilltop. With a veto pen. But the servers aren’t assuming they can sit at the bottom of the incline and wait for the governor to handle the problem. They’re doing all the legwork they can.
This posting is the second in a regular series about activists that I’m writing with the assistance of the St. Louis Activist Hub. The first posting is here.
