Florida Minimum Wage Could Be Slashed For Restaurant Workers
from HuffPost:
The Florida restaurant lobby is pushing a bill that would drop the minimum wage for the state's restaurant servers and other tipped employees from $4.65 to $2.13 an hour, creating the rare possibility of a legal wage floor being lowered rather than raised.
The bill under consideration by the state's tourism and commerce committee, SPB 7210, would allow restaurants to ditch the state's minimum wage for servers in favor of the lower, federal one, provided the businesses guarantee that their workers will earn at least $9.98 per hour after tips. If the bill were passed, servers would end up taking home less pay, and customers would be paying a greater share of the salary burden.
The state senate's website does not disclose who introduced the bill, though it appears to have the wide support of Florida's hospitality industry, including the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association. Carol Dover, the group's executive director, said in an Orlando Sentinel article that the industry is saddled by rising pay and health care costs and "it's going to be a matter of time before the back of this industry breaks ... Minimum wage is killing them."
Worker advocacy groups are pushing back against the bill, arguing that the restaurant industry's dire talk is baseless. The National Restaurant Association, the foremost lobbying group for the industry, recently released its 2012 forecast, which predicted record sales and continued job growth. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/08/florida-minimum-wage-servers_n_1263031.html?ref=business
= new reply since forum marked as read
...they don't make shit for tips. (especially if the patrons are from certain states and countries)
I won't name names but any servers out there know who I am talking about. 
Worked there for two years during the late 1990s. This club was marketed toward families--routines were free of profanity and references to adult-themes--and as such, there were evenings when only families came, i.e. Sunday. And since we also had popcorn, candy and soft drinks, there were evenings I didn't make a single cent in tips! After all, who tips the guy selling popcorn, candy and soft drinks?
About this time, Congress (if I recall correctly) passed a law requiring a certain percentage of my wages would be taken out of my paycheck to cover the "loss" to the government of "unreported tips" at tax time. In other words (as far as I was able to understand) I was suppose to report tips on my tax return, yet this additional tax would help cover the tips I didn't report! 
And as I said, there were some evenings I didn't make a single cent in tips put paid taxes on them anyway! 
Saipan sweatshops (complete with sex slaves, forced prostitution, AND forced abortions) and/or Apple's "Foxconn".
... don't need to eat, or live indoors.
