Should an employer be able to deduct tips against the employee's minimum wage?

[greenforest32]

In the U.S. it is legal for an employer to take the estimated amount of tips a tipped employee (typically waitress type positions) will make and deduct some/all of that amount against the minimum wage and then pay an employee less than the minimum wage. This practice is known as a 'tip credit' and is an issue in federal and state law.

The federal minimum wage currently allows for a tip credit as do 43 of the 50 states:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Minimum_Wage_Act_of_2007#Omissions

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http://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm

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I oppose these tip credits as tips are not supposed to be commissions but rather be rewards/incentives for service. I also doubt the U.S. would have this mandatory tipping culture (tipping out of guilt because you know the employee makes less than the minimum wage?) that other countries apparently don't have if we didn't have this tip credit in federal or state law (I bet these other countries don't have tip credits).

What do you think?

[greenforest32]

Also interesting:

You can make a lot of money as a waitress in those 7 states without a tip credit due to the mandatory tipping culture: full minimum wage + frequent tips with no tip credit = can make $25-50k+ a year if full-time depending on the # of customers served and the $ amount of tips

Oregon is one of the 7 states without a tip credit and it was an issue in our 2010 governor election with the Republican candidate (and the restaurant-owner lobby who pushes for tip credits everywhere) wanting a tip credit for Oregon basically arguing that waitresses make too much money while the Democratic candidate opposed adopting a tip credit.

[greenforest32]

A recent article on this that has some more background on the issue (plus a cameo appearance by Herman Cain!): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/02/minimum-wage-restaurant-workers_n_1515916.html

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