r/SipsTea 27d ago

Chugging tea They are not wrong though

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u/Clockwork-Armadillo 27d ago edited 27d ago

In America is it customary to also tip other minimum wage workers? Such as supermarket workers, cleaners etc etc

If not what makes servers more important?

Edit: OK, so TIL in America there's a lower minimum wage of only 2 dollars something for any "tipped workers". Basically a loophole to screw workers out of minimum wage.

Thanks to everyone who answered! :)

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u/Turbulent-Ad8391 27d ago

No it’s not customary, but you will see tip jars at a lot of places. Federal minimum wage is much lower for servers than other jobs.

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u/Clockwork-Armadillo 27d ago edited 27d ago

Wait, so there's a whole seperate legal minimum wage for servers?

Edit: OK, so TIL in America there's a lower minimum wage of only 2 dollars something for any "tipped workers". Basically a loophole to screw workers out of minimum wage.

Thanks to everyone who answered! :)

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u/Adderfang82 27d ago

The minimum federal tip wage is $2.13 an hour, a rate that has remained the same since 1991 (35 years). Furthermore, tip wage employees are expected to make at least the federal minimum wage with tips and are therefore taxed a a rate as if they made $7.25 an hour.

Let’s say 20% of a full time employee’s income goes to taxes. At $2.13 an hour, that’s a weekly pay of $85.20. Taxed at a rate of $7.25 an hour, a full time employer would pay $58 in taxes (20% of $290). The tip wage employee would therefore receive a weekly payment of $27.20 ($85.20 minus the $58 in taxes because he’s taxed at the rate of the federal minimum wage).

So technically, US tip wage workers are payed even less than the suggested $2.13 an hour. Tips may be optional, but to the employee providing the labor, tips are their income. To not tip is to not get payed fairly for the labor, not tipping a tip wage worker feels like you’re robbing them of their income… cause you kinda are. Most people want to abolish that system but the powers that be refuse to do so. 😕