This country suffers an epidemic of wage theft, as large numbers of employers violate minimum-wage, overtime, and other wage and hour laws with virtual impunity. Especially hard-hit are restaurant workers.
Although employers are legally required to pay tipped workers at least minimum wage when tips do not meet the hourly full minimum wage, enforcement is weak and disorganized. According to the Pew research center: In 2008, the federal government employed only one workplace inspector for every 141,000 workers. That meant the average employer had just a 0.001 percent chance of being investigated in a given year. And low-wage workers most likely cannot pay a lawyer to sue their employer for the wages that are rightfully theirs. A restaurant worker shorted, say, $300 isn’t going to find a lawyer who thinks such a small amount of wages is worth his or her time. Employers can be pretty certain they can get away with it.
This is the most ignorant, asinine response to these types of articles. First, “you want more money? Get a better job” could apply to any profession even the President of the United States. People are working where they are in life because of a number of variables, all of which your self-entitled ass is clearly to ignorant to understand. Second, if all the servers, busboys, and bartenders “got a better job” then we wouldn’t have restaurants and bars to enjoy a nice dinner or a couple cocktails. Hello? This is a crucial part of our economy. Americans eat out more than any other nation. Even the most menial of jobs (though putting up with pompous assholes like you when you go out to eat takes far more skills than most jobs) should pay enough to provide food and housing to people working for living.
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This country suffers an epidemic of wage theft, as large numbers of employers violate minimum-wage, overtime, and other wage and hour laws with virtual impunity. Especially hard-hit are restaurant workers.
Although employers are legally required to pay tipped workers at least minimum wage when tips do not meet the hourly full minimum wage, enforcement is weak and disorganized. According to the Pew research center: In 2008, the federal government employed only one workplace inspector for every 141,000 workers. That meant the average employer had just a 0.001 percent chance of being investigated in a given year. And low-wage workers most likely cannot pay a lawyer to sue their employer for the wages that are rightfully theirs. A restaurant worker shorted, say, $300 isn’t going to find a lawyer who thinks such a small amount of wages is worth his or her time. Employers can be pretty certain they can get away with it.
This is the most ignorant, asinine response to these types of articles. First, “you want more money? Get a better job” could apply to any profession even the President of the United States. People are working where they are in life because of a number of variables, all of which your self-entitled ass is clearly to ignorant to understand. Second, if all the servers, busboys, and bartenders “got a better job” then we wouldn’t have restaurants and bars to enjoy a nice dinner or a couple cocktails. Hello? This is a crucial part of our economy. Americans eat out more than any other nation. Even the most menial of jobs (though putting up with pompous assholes like you when you go out to eat takes far more skills than most jobs) should pay enough to provide food and housing to people working for living.