The Pros And Cons Of Attending Minimum Wage

How do booming national and international chains- restaurants, hotels, retail outlets, cleaning services, and eldercare facilities – affect the treatment and aspirations of low-wage workers? Consider how market competition and the push for profits drive the nickel and dimming of America's lowest paid.

Many low paid workers can thrive in society and get through their struggles, but the lack the respect that they deserve for what they do. Barbara Ehrenreich and Mike rose share their professional observations on this matter. Ehrenreich shares her research from a chapter in her book Nickeled and Dimed, called “Serving in Florida.” She focuses largely on how low-wage workers are oppressed and how little voice they have. She describes how difficult it is for low-income workers to survive month to month and what sorts of problems this lifestyle can cause. Roses share’s his experience in his article, “The Intelligence of the Waitress in Motion.” Rose focuses on how little credit low-wage workers receive for utilizing high level intelligence to get

The database that I am planning on using in Unit eights is Tips. I am a firm believer in giving a waiter or a waitress is because they make so little money. As per industry specialists, tips in the US add up to about $40 billion a year. The normal tippers crosswise over most ventures give around 15% to 20%, and that it's dependably a smart thought to tip more. The inclination to tip is not selective to Americans. In an examination looking at tipping in the U.S. what's more, Israel, Azar found that individuals in the two nations would preferably tip than pay benefit charges, regardless of the way that individuals as a rule tip more than the settled measure of an administration charge. There's not an authoritative conclusion with respect to why,

In 2014, Senator Patty Murray and Representative Robert Scott proposed the Raise the Wage Act, which would address the crisis of wage stagnation and income inequality (Economic Policy Institute). In an article by the Economic Policy Insitiute, it explains, what the act would do, and how to achieve it. The Raise the Wage Act would increase federal minimum wage to $12.00 by 2020, by slowing increasing the wage to $8.00 followed by an increase of a dollar a year for 4 years. It would also phase out the subminimum wage for tipped workers, such as waitresses. This act would benefit 35 million workers , and in the long run would increase economical sustainability, pump billions of dollars back into the economy because it would increase consumer spending, and greatly reduce poverty. It would also ensure that workers don’t get laid off because as these increases happen incrementally, business owners can plan out expense to fit the wage

Since the year 1991, the United States minimum tipped wage for servers and waiters has been the same. From then til now, the minimum wage for non-tipped employees in the country has almost doubled causing a rift in equality in the workforce. Employees who depend solely on tips struggle to make a living and are forced to work more than one

Reading about realistic low-income situations in "Serving in Florida" and "A Waitress's Instructions on Tipping” has confirmed my thoughts about poverty. Specifically, in "A Waitress's Instructions on Tipping” there is a line where the author says "Remember I am somebody's mother or daughter" (Beatty, Jan). It's a simple sentiment, but too often people forget that service workers still have groceries to buy, and rent due at the beginning of the month. After reading these selected texts, I realize how important tipping is. In

Tipping encourages restaurant owners to pay employees low-wage salaries. Employers rely heavenly on tips as a form of salary for their employees. In an article written by The New York Times it explains how in some states there is an “exemption” that allows employers to pay very low-wage to those employees who receive tips. For example, in Kansas employees only get paid 1.59 per hour which is way under the minimum wage (The New York Times). But to be able to this the employee must make up in tips what would amount to the minimum wage per hour. So if the employee is not making the minimum wage in tips per hour it is the employers’ responsibility to make sure that server is earning minimum wage. That is still saving the employer a lot of money

24 years ago, people rarely use cell phone to calling, the cars don’t access lot of accessories such as navigator, Bluetooth, censors. 24 years ago, the cost of one gallon is under one dollar and now is over two dollars. In 20 years, everything has been changing as much as they could. we have new base salary, new price products (which is much higher), new visions about social and technology. However, there is one thing doesn’t change during that time. It is tipped worker base salary. While ordinary base salary worker raised up which intention to make the workers ‘life is much better, the base tipped worker hasn’t changed for twenty-Three years. It is only two dollars and thirteen cents per hour

According to a study done by Perdue University, “…paying fast-food restaurant employees $15 an hour could lead to higher prices. Prices at those businesses could increase by an estimated 4.3%, according to the report” (Wihbey, Effects of raising the minimum wage: Research and critical lessons”). With a higher minimum wage, businesses must then pay their employees more, and to pay these additional expenses; they are coerced to charge more for their products, which impacts everybody, making it more difficult for people to provide for their families. The Cato Institute stated, “According to a review of more than 20 minimum wage studies observing price effects found that a 10 percent increase in the US minimum wage raises food prices by up to 4 percent” (Wilson, “Four Reasons Not to Raise the Minimum Wage”). If the federal minimum wage increases from $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour, it is being increased by slightly more than 206%, which, according to this study, could lead to almost an 84% growth in food prices. According to another study on the effects of an increase in the federal minimum wage on consumer prices in the Reason magazine, “Raising the minimum wage to $15 could increase the cost of food by 43%” (47: 10). After a significant increase in the federal minimum wage, the employees who did not lose their jobs would then be receiving

Tipping has emerged as a major method of compensating wait staff ever since the 1960s when Congress passed the provision within Fair Labor Standards Act legislation which introduced the “tip credit” (Allegretto & Cooper, July 10, 2014). The FLSA provision set the minimum wage for tipped employees at $2.13 per hour, given that the employees would ‘earn’ $7.25 per hour from tips. The government considers employees who earn more than $30 per month as tipped employees. The tipped minimum wage has adversely impacted tipped employees, which includes barbers, stylists, wait staff, doormen, etc., such that they need to provide a high level of service so they can receive generous tips. The tipped minimum wage provision assigns tipped employees to high poverty due to their low income salary levels.

The fast-food workers are expressed as a pond in a bigger game. They have to deal with their low pay in order to ensure low prices by these franchises. Jencunas concerns go on to represent the beginning of a bigger chain effect. Briefly, he states that, “The average fast food store would go from profitable to unprofitable overnight. Some would close immediately, leaving their workers worse off than they were when working for $7.50 an hour, while others would raise prices and try and remain in business, hurting consumers” (“Don't Deserve Any More, or Less”). Evaluating his reasoning we see that if fast-food workers ask for a higher minimum wage, they will in return influence the profit margin and actually increase unemployment rate in this industry. The researchers go on to inform us that if their minimum wage increases the industry won’t be able to afford the change in their profit margin and result in bankruptcy. However, Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, which supports the fast-food strike states a different claim:

Back in 1966 The United States we established that tipping services should have a set minimum wage; It was set at 50% of the current minimum wage at the time. In 1991, when minimum wage was 4.25, tipping wage was at 2.13. (Stuart 2) It has not changed since that day in history. Contrary to the major accepted practice that tipping helps servers make more money If we abolish tipping, we will be able to lift those working in the service industry out of poverty, provide a better work environment for restaurants, and develop a new system to show gratitude towards those who do an exceptional job.

The United States is one of the few counties in the world still using the old fashion tipping system. “During the late 19th century legislature rapidly abolishes the practice of tipping when it is introduced by wealthy Americans. Eventually restauranteurs find a way to prospect of passing labor costs to consumer, which convinced the American to accept the practice of tipping.” When many American don’t understand the purpose of tipping is for but somehow it is customer responsibility to pay the restaurant employees based on their service. There are many reasons to argue about the tipping system. But, most of them ignore the very basic problem with abolishing tipping in America, the most difficult of which is our absurdly low minimum wage. The practice is abhorrent from a historical perspective.

In a country like America, money is something that can (and will) determine life or death for some people. Workig in the food industry as a server is never anything that someone aspires to do, its usually a job to help them keep food on their own table and clothes on their backs. Food servers deserve to be paid as much as they work for. People tend to forget that the people who work for them need to be able to support themselves financially as well. The server wages should be increased. While there are some complications that could arise from this change, a solution coud be just as easily created.

“Paying your employees well is not only the right thing to do, but it makes for good business”-Jim Sinegal, CEO of Costco. Many of America’s employees are not being paid well, however, for the annual income of a full-time employee who works year-round is less than $16,000 (about $15, 080) according to the current federal minimum wage (Rebuilding). To put into retrospect how out-dated the federal minimum wage is, consider that the minimum wage of 1956 amounted to exactly $7.93 in 2009 (Henderson). How progressive is it that our nation’s workers being paid less today than workers from the 50’s? The federal minimum wage should be raised in order to assist families out of poverty, to ensure the effort and loyalty of workers, and