Should our elected officials be allowed to pass laws that aid special interests in stealing private property?

[aingeni]

Should our elected officials be able to pass laws that allow special interests to steal other people's private property?

I am not talking about taxing people for legitimate public concerns. What I am talking about is passing laws that allow special interests, such as business owners, to steal the tips customers present their workers.

The reason I ask is, we currently have a law called the federal tip credit that allows businesses to indirectly steal the customer's tip. Rather than allowing the business to directly steal the customer's tip, the tip credit is tied into our federal labor laws and allows businesses to indirectly steal the tips customers present.

The way it works is, rather that directly stealing the customer's tip, employers are allowed to lower the hourly wages of any employee who receive tips. Federal laws state that an employer can utilize up to $5.12 an hour of the tips an employee receives to reduce that employee's hourly wages from minimum wage, $7.25 an hour, down to $2.13 an hour.

If an employee receive $10 an hour in tips, his employer can reduce his hourly wages by up to $5.12 hour, thus using the customer's tip to bring the employee's hourly wages up to the required minimum wage amount of $7.25 an hour.

The thing is, if customers suddenly stop tipping this employee, the employer would have to pay the employee $7.25 an hour, instead of $2.13 an hour. What this means is that an employer who takes a tip credit on his employee and reduces his hourly wages is actually taking a portion of the customer's tip to pay his employee the required minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

If an employee only receive $4.00 an hour in tips, the federal tip credit only allows an employer to reduce the employee's hourly wages by $4.00 an hour, however, think about this. If an employee is earning $7.25 an hour an customers start tipping him $4.00, who is going to financially benefit from the customer's tip if the employer lowers the employees hourly wages by $4.00 an hour. In this particular scenario, the employee who was earning $7.25 an hour, before customers started tipping him is going to earn $7.25 if customers start tipping him and his employer lowers his hourly wages by $4.00 an hour.

While many of you are probably unaware of the federal tip credit, many workers in the service industry are well aware of the law but have no forum to speak out against the law. The media is reluctant to run any articles which attempt to expose this corrupt legislation. The restaurant industry is one of the biggest lobbyists in this country and they have kept a tight lid on their little secret.

Without consent from the customer, I call such acts stealing.

[devon]

This practice is wrong. Everyone should get minimum wage and tips should not be taxed. When I was a waiter in the 90's, I wasn't aware of the Federal Labor Law. Is it new? I know you arent refering to taxes, but did you know a Federal Income Tax is unconstutional and there's now actual law that states we must pay it. Watch the movie "Freedom to Fascism". Also, listen to Ron Paul's views on tipped workers wages.http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/jan/31/ron-paul-end-tax-tips-nevada/

[shen86]

ishouldntneverbedrunk you know it's badtosay that to your daughter

[piaras91]

it varies from state to state depending if it's a "right to work" state. in calif. servers must be paid at least min. wage plus tips. in arizona which is a right to work state they can pay hourly wages as low as 2.15 plus your tips. who's getting workes over in this b.s? oh yeah, the workers

[juanito]

Sounds like another corp. Scam to me...never heard of it but its a bunch of b.s. Im tired myself of the people who actually do the labor/work in this country and constantly being robbed of their work efforts money wise where as someone in an office can sit there and click a few buttons throughout the day and be paid umpteen thousands of dollars more a yr. Than the guy/girl who's actually performing the work and making these big corporations reap all the benefits and receive huge bonuses while the working man is constantly being taken from. Its a form of robbery and corruption..Those that work and are actually doing the labor should be allowed to reap some benefits also and not just the men behind the curtain...They're all modern day thieves just coming up with ways to do it legally(in corporates eyes)..Its still thieving if u ask me and anyone else whose a working class american citizen..Banks control everything now and it's all about making them more money and keeping the poor man down! F@#$**G Thieves!