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in article , Bechi at Bechi wrote
on 4/5/05 6:23 AM:

> On Mon, 04 Apr 2005 19:28:28 GMT, wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 17:34:39 -0500, potatoman
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> Interesting. That's before they even get tips? No wonder standard
>>> tipping is much less...these guys already make a pretty good salary.
>>> Before tips, in the US, the average full-time (40hrs/week) server makes
>>> somewhere around 340USD/month. Considering a medium sized 1 bedroom
>>> apartment in my area costs about 600USD/month, that's not even close to
>>> being considered liveable (hence, the high tipping standard).
>>
>> Math challenged?
>>
>> 160 hours into $340 is $2.13 an hour!
>>
>> I think you meant 340USD/week, huh? Not that that's exactly a
>> screaming wage, but at least it's the federally mandated minimum wage.
>>
> JJ - without actually looking it up, $2.13/hr. sounds about right.
> There is a separate minimum wage covering employees with tip income
> and when payday comes around, their net pay is often $0, as taxes on
> their wages + estimated tips will exceed their gross pay.
>

Exactly right. Most US states have a separate minimum wage law covering
restaurant workers who receive tips. The restaurants are also required to
use a calculation of tips servers report as income in order to pay the
proper amount into the federal social security fund (don't get started on
that) for the server. That's how they can wind up with $0.00 in their
actual wage check. (Many restaurants pay out tips in cash, regardless of
whether credit cards were used).

Here's a site reference for the US Restaurant Association where you can
download a PDF file of a map showing the exact figures by state. Only a
handful of states apply the same minimum wage to ALL jobs in the state. Many
DO have a server minimum of US$2.13 PER HOUR.

http://www.restaurant.org/government...wage/index.cfm