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EMAIL FROM TOM EMMER ON JOBS
By Luke Hellier | July 6, 2010
A Message from Tom Emmer
Yesterday we kicked off the next phase of the Freedom and Prosperity Project. We are talking with different businesses around the state about the most important issue in this election: jobs. The first stop was at a restaurant where we listened to the owners talk about things state government could do to keep and grow jobs. They mentioned a tip credit, already in place in 43 other states including all of our neighboring states.
When a reporter asked if I supported the concept of a tip credit, I answered yes. I want the wait staff at a restaurant to be successful and make as much as they can, and a recent study published in Applied Economics Letters shows that tip credits have essentially no negative impact on wages for tipped employees. So contrary to what some people are saying, I have no interest in “cutting wages.”
Tip credits can impact jobs, and in a good way. Tip credits can help employers hire more people, or pay other employees higher wages. In today’s economy, we have to do everything we can to growjobs, including hospitality jobs.
When the Legislature tried to raise the minimum wage, I supported a modest tip credit, freezing tipped employees at the current minimum wage to account for the wages they received as tips. This proposal was designed to prevent layoffs at bars and restaurants across the state as we headed into the recession. And, in fact, over 4000 jobs were lost last year in the hospitality industry as the recession took hold. Ultimately, our legislative leaders refused this modest concession.
I am a strong believer that a paycheck is better than an unemployment check. Job losses and business closings aren’t good for anybody. The United Auto Workers Union learned that lesson the hard way, as our auto industry almost collapsed at least partly due to an unwillingness to negotiate wage, benefit, and work rules that would have kept the industry afloat.
This election is about jobs, and ensuring that the government doesn’t keep getting in the way of job creation.
I will continue to focus on improving this economy to create and protect jobs in every part of the state.
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Topics: Uncategorized | 11 Comments »
July 7th, 2010 at 5:42 AM
Basically, Tom is proposing that a server’s first tip each hour goes back to the employer. While he may believe that an paycheck is better than an unemployment check, in practice he seems to believe that a kickback is better than a paycheck.
For a variety of reasons, restaurants are lousy businesses to be in, but I don’t think the reason for that is that the waiters are paid too much. This is just another in a series of incidents which suggests that Tom Emmer, despite his years as a hockey player and coach, just doesn’t have an understanding of how the world works. I expect to see a lot more.
July 7th, 2010 at 8:37 AM
The backpeddalling continues from Camp Emmer.
So much for exposing Democrats!
July 7th, 2010 at 8:48 AM
Emmer said this proposal would result in a “level playing field so the employers can continue to exist, survive and thrive.”
Again I ask.. where does he expect to find enough votes to win, when he keeps kicking the lower and middle class voters in the teeth?
Keep up the good work Tom!
July 7th, 2010 at 12:42 PM
Love all the liberal righteous indignation. These same people are willing to:
1) Take away customers from these same servers by imposing property rights violations in the form of smoking bans. Servers lost their jobs when the smokers stopped coming in thanks to these same busy-bodies.
2) Raise taxes on these people in the form of gas taxes and cigarette “fees” knowing full well it’s these exact people they’re hurting the most.
Then they whine when someone proposes doing exactly what 43 other states already do, like it was some odd, alien proposal from outer space.
Please.
July 7th, 2010 at 3:06 PM
Hector, perhaps you should poll a true sample of waiters that serve in competitive intrastate restaurants. A good wait staff can consistently pull in 60-100 dollars during rush hours.
July 7th, 2010 at 3:08 PM
That is 60 to 100 dollars an hour.
July 7th, 2010 at 7:02 PM
Joe, don’t confuse danbrome with facts.
July 8th, 2010 at 9:15 AM
Dan, I am not sure what your point is. A waiter who is earning 60 to a 100 dollars an hour in tips, is generating maybe 600 dollars an hour in revenue for the restaurant. For that revenue generating capacity, I think it would be a pretty dumb restaurant owner who would begrudge your good waiter, a few dollars in wages. And of course only an extraordinarily naive politician like Tom Emmer would think that giving such a restaurant owner that kind of tip credit would materially enhance the prospects for his business.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that Tom Emmer just doesn’t know how the world works.
July 8th, 2010 at 10:26 AM
The average wait staff, WITH tips, makes around 20,000 a year. Where are all these waiters and waitressess living in McMansions? Seriously, someone making 20,000 a year makes to much? You guys know for a fact waiters and waitresses are not rich, yet you continue to fight against some of the hardest working Americans.
July 8th, 2010 at 5:07 PM
Alec, I was talking about waiters and waitresses that are competitive in their field. These jobs are hard to come by unless that person be high performing. The reason the jobs are competitive is the high business turnover in sales. These people make good money relative to the labor hours they put in. It’s a tough job and they are compensated by having to work less hours if need be. I’m talking about talented wait staff who have done this type of work for years.The tip credits allow management to pay productive employees more. Would you argue with a waiter him/herself? That would be just arrogant and belittling. Argue the matter on merit not gut feelings and instinct.
July 8th, 2010 at 5:53 PM
@Alex, great point. It’s funny to hear people suggest that a restaurant owner would shift a buck or two per hour from their lowest earning employee to their highest paid employee if they were suddenly in a position to pay all of their employees less. That’s a theory that I severely doubt would hold up if tested.
In fact, it looks like the MN GOP can’t agree upon a justification for cutting worker wages, since Emmer’s own justification for the pay cut is different.