(Vanity) Our government has passed a bill which rewards businesses for stealing employee's property

George

[Mike Darancette]

Tank you for the lucid explanation. I'm going to bookmark this.

I still say that a tip is a freewill gift from one person to another and the employer or the government, for that matter, has no interest in it. Hopefully a new tax scheme such as a flat or consumption will rectify that.

[mysterio]

I think it is crap that tips are factored into the salary. If we are going to have a minimum wage law in the first place, businesses shouldn't be able to use the tip as part of the minimum wage. Makes me inclined to not leave a tip at all so that the miser who runs the business has to pick it up.

[George14]

The federal reserve could be repealed. You see, it is the federal reserve that causes there to be a need for minimum wage. When our government allows bankers to control the value of money, which is the case with the federal reserve, the value of a mans labor is also effected. When a man accepts a job for a specific pay it is based on the value of a dollar. Let's say you accpet a job for $20 an hour. When the federal reserve lowers interests rates it also devalues the dollar. Now your acceptance of a job for $20 an hour becomes acceptance of a job for $18 hour because your $20 has been devalued to $18. You see, this is the reason why we need a minimum wage and minimum wage raises. Our government believes that the value of our money should steadily decrease to encourage economic growth. However, when they devalue our money, they are unconstitutionally interfering in employment contracts. You see, our Constitution clearly states that no law shall be passed which impairs the obligation of contracts. An employment agreement is a contract. And when you accept to work for a certain wage that contract legally binds the employer to pay you that wage for the extent of your employment. However, when the federal reserve intentionally devalues our money, the employment contract which you and your employer agreed to is altered. Instead of the employer paying you $20 as agreed upon, your employer is actually paying you less in terms of the value of your agreed upon contract.

To offset this byproduct of intentionally decreasing the value of the dollar and to preserve the contracts between employer and worker, it is necessary to increase a minimum wage in order to not impair the obligations of such work contracts. Most Americans accept an hourly rate or salary that meets their finacial needs. However, with our current government bent on devaluing our currency every year, there becomes a need on the part of the workers to increase their earning to keep up with such inflation. Businesses, however, thrive from such government policies for while it is difficult for a worker to demand higher wages or find another job paying a suffient income, they simply have to raise their prices like all the other businesses are doing to make up for the ill effects of inflation.

You see, If our government was not intentionally devaluing our dollar, I would also agree that no minimum wage or minimum wage raises were neccesary. Hoewever, if our government is going to intentionally decrease the value of our money then they must also be expected to increase the wages to keep up with this intentional inflation. If you truly want to put an end to minimum wages and minimum wage increases then pursuade Washington to put an end to devaluing our money. Until this relentless inflation is ceased there can be no cease in raising the minimum wage.

[George14]

When minimum wage is increased, what is being ignored is the fact that businesses owners are being allowed an even bigger tip credit on their employees. As it stands right now an employer can reduce his workers wages by $3.02 an hour if and only if the employee receives at least $3.02 an hour in tips from customers. However, when minimum wage is raised, like so many states have already done, the amount of the tip credit is increased. If a state or for that matter the federal government adopts a minimum wage of lets say $6.15 an hour the current federal law would allow businesses to continue to pay tipped employees $2.12 an hour. What this means is that while minimum wage is being increased it is actually allowing businesses owners an ability to credit even more of their employee's tips to themselves. Currently the federal minimum wage stands at $5.15 an hour while the minimum wage for tipped employees is said to be locked in at $2.13 an hour. The current difference between the standard minimum wage and minimum wage for tipped employees is $3.02 an hour, $5.15 minus $2.12 an hour. However, when states or the federal government raises their standard minimum wage to $6.15 an hour, the difference between the tipped employee's minimum wage and the standard minimum wage will be increased to $4.02. Instead of employers being allowed to credit $3.02 an hour of the tips their employees receive from our public, employers will be allowed to credit $4.02 an hour of the tips their employees receive from our public. An increase in minimum wage becomes an increase in the amount employers may steal from their employees who receive tips from our public.

Let me be quite clear on this matter. The tip credit is nothing more than an allowance for employer's to steal the financial benefits of their employee's tips. There is no argument on this issue. When business owners are allowed to reduce an employee's wages because a customer gave him a tip, it is no different than allowing the employer to steal the employee's tip. Bob received $80 in tips, but because he received tips his employer may pay him $24.00 less than what he would have had to have paid him had his customers not tipped him. Bob's tips are being stolen by his employer due to the fact that our federal government has allowed Bob's employer to credit part of Bob's tips towards his employer's minimum wage obligations. While Bob may physically go home with that $80 worth of tips in his pocket, his employer has saved $24.00 which will be reflected on Bob's paycheck. Bob's paycheck will be reduced by $24.00 because our federal and state governments believes that they have a right to take the financial benefits of Bob's tips away from Bob and give them over to business owners.

Let me be even clearer on this matter. It is a constitutional right of every citizen to determine for themselves how their money is spent. If they want to give it to a worker as a tip, our constitution guarantees that our government will not interfere in their rights to dispose of their property however they wish. The tip credit is in violation of our constitution for it blatantly deprives our citizens of their right to determine how and to whom their money will be spent on. The tip credit unconstitutionally deprives customers of their right to determine for themselves whether or not the business owner should benefit from their tips by mandating that any tips given may be used to financially benefit the business owner through the tip credit. The tip credit is criminal and unconstitutional. Tips are not the federal government's property that they should determine that the financial benefits of those tips should be bestowed upon the business owners of this nation. Tips are clearly defined as the sole property of the tipped employee, not the property of the federal government. Customers have a constitutional right to give tips to workers without interference from a corrupt government who believes that the government should be able to transfer the financial benefit of the public's tips over to business owners. This blatant corruption must be stopped. If our government is allowed to disregard our constitution and flagrantly steal from our workers what our public has clearly given them then our nation is headed on a course of self destruction.