Restaurant owner says Emmer misspoke on $100k waiter pay

Wow we are in a recesion and a republican canidate has the audacity to actualy say that we need to reduce the pay of the jobs that still exist! This man is in no way in touch with the real world.

I would like to ask Emmer how many restaurants he has ever worked at and how much did he make. How many of his family and friends ever worked in the food industry?

Andy, there’s an error at the end of the article, though I don’t know if that’s your error or Kasel’s. Kasel isn’t saying Emmer was misquotED. He’s saying Emmer was misquotING. The audio of Emmer saying it makes it clear he’s not being misquoted. He’s also suggesting eliminating minimum wages altogether. http://the-uptake.groups.theuptake.org/en/videogalleryView/id/3197/

Emmer didn’t “misspeak,” he lied through his teeth hoping he had a friendly audience and no one would care. A page right out of the Michele Bachmann Playbook.

“Creative” intelligence worked to get us into Iraq, it’s worked to make people more afraid of debt than imminent economic collapse, why not use it at every opportunity?

You really can lie to some of the people all of the time.

emmer can make over a 100 thousand a year as both govenor and a waiter at a restaurant. Maybe he forgot to say that only a waiter who is a govenor and works part time can make over a 100 grand a year. The clown is trying to lead a circus when he thinks no one is paying attention.

New tactic? Blame the employed.

Minnesota state Rep. Tom Emmer, the presumptive Republican nominee for governor, has put forward a new policy for helping the state’s businesses: Lowering the minimum wage for waiters and waitresses, and forcing them to rely more heavily on tips.

Minnesota is one of seven states that do not permit employers to pay less than the standard minimum wage to tipped workers. Federal law permits tipped workers’ wages to be as low $2.13 per hour, with tips given to workers credited against the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour employers are required to pay. Emmer’s proposal would get rid of Minnesota’s law against using that credit, and thus bring the minimum wages for restaurant staff and other gratuity-based workers down to $2.13 per hour plus tips, a reduction of nearly two-thirds. Emmer said this proposal would result in a “level playing field so the employers can continue to exist, survive and thrive.”

“We need a leader who will fight for us,” said Denise Cardinal, Executive Director of Alliance for a Better Minnesota Action Fund. “Voters need to know that Tom Emmer is just like Tim Pawlenty, who sides with the big corporate special interests over working families. Emmer’s record shows he’s not on our side.”

Come to think of it, Emmer is probably confusing Restaurants with Bondage strip clubs.

Well there went the hospitality industry vote. I’m sure he’ll get around to dissing almost every working class job before the election comes.

I work for a restaurant owned by Parasole. I just read an article from 2007 after the minimum wage increase, where a Parasole executive claimed that the increase (without a tip credit) would probably prevent them from opening more restaurants in MN. Pretty funny, since they’ve opened 2 in the past year, with another coming in September. Crying wolf?

I hope that every waitress and waiter in Minnesota will know by Election Day that if they vote for Tom Emmer, they are voting to reduce their own wages. I think if all the waitresses and waiters urged the people they see to vote correctly, Minnesota could eventually return to a good government state.
At the same time, every working person should know that the main goal of most Republican candidates is to get rid of Social Security, because they want only rich people to retire with dignity.

Well I would like for Tom Emmer to let me know at which restaurant I can make $100K per year so I can quit my insurance business and get a job there.

I think most politicians speak before they think. Their opinion changes with the wind and audiance if they think they can get a vote.

This comment comes from a very conservative Republican.

I am ashamed of my party, when our candidates talk stupid picking on the working class, and hard work by the way. I was a bus boy and had to back up our waiters and waitresses when it got busy. I know they earn their money too… having to put up with stupid customers like Mr. Emmer. Try working for a day as a waiter in a busy restaurant Mr. Emmer (you could stand to lose a couple of pounds anyway) and then go to your boss as say, “I made some tips today so I want you to reduce my hourly wage to $2.13 per hour.” Oh, and make that retroactive please. What a comedian this guy Emmer is, and nobody is laughing, shame on you. I am going out for some tea this morning.

The business at Eagle Street must be super fantastic if there are servers making $100,000.00 a year! Or there are some really generous patrons. If Eagle Street were the most exclusive, highest priced establishment in NY or LA I might believe the servers there make that kind of money.

While at a lunch meeting, I asked the young woman waiting on us and her team about Tom Emmer’s $100,000 comment. The response was entertaining at the very least. All commented that no matter what he does from here on out, he has all ready lost their votes.

Keep on keeping it real, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer!

All of you entitlement hores just don’t believe in or understand the free market.If an employer could pay less than min.wage and then reward the best of those employees the best servers would be making more than they currently are and the worst servers would learn very quickly to step it up or lose out The Gov’t.or your employer is not your Mama and are not entitled to take care of you. Suck it up you weinies.
THE FREE MARKET IS THE GREAT EQUALIZER NOT THE GOV’T

This guy is so far off from reality it makes me sick! There is not one restaurant in the state of MN that has staff clearing enough money to live off of their tips. I would love to serve his table and see what percent tip he leaves. I can bet this jerk is a cheap tipper. Better yet I would love to have him work as a server for one week and see if he would be comfortable living off the tips. My big question to him is why are you targeting servers? There is many tipped positions out there. Why the servers? What a sick man. Karma will get to him.

another republican moron what a suprise, not hardly considering 99% of the whole party is made up of complete idiots such as Bachmann, Palin, and the list goes on.

[...] a bill slashing the minimum wage if it were passed by the Minnesota legislature. He also made waves by suggesting that servers and waitresses make too much money, and that they should have the playing field leveled so that their wages get brought down a peg. [...]

[...] a bill slashing the minimum wage if it were passed by the Minnesota legislature. He also made waves by suggesting that servers and waitresses make too much money, and that they should have the playing field leveled so that their wages get brought down a peg. [...]

[...] your taking a stand the haters like Michele Bachmann and Tom Emmer become the celebrities with the largest voice by [...]

[...] LACK. With the notable exception of Emmer’s “waitresses make $100,000 per year” doozey, there weren’t many highly embarrassing candidate gaffes in the campaign. Certainly nothing that [...]

The tip credit, which most states have adopted, is a law that allows business owners to steal the customer’s tip. No state should be allowed to apopt a law that steals the public’s private property in such a manner. Let me explain.

Bob the busboy earns $5.12 an hour in tips. According to the tip credit, his employer can lower his hourly wages from $7.25 an hour, down to $2.13 an hour as long as Bob continues receiving $5.12 an hour in tips. Now here is the proof that Bob’s employer is actually indirectly stealing the tips when he takes a tip credit.

If customers were to suddenly stop tipping, Bob wouldn’t lose any income. You see the tip credit is dependent on tips and therefore Bob’s employer would have to pay Bob the full minimum wage of $7.25 if customers discontinued tipping. Bob’s employer is the only one who would actually lose any money if customers stopped tipping. If customers stopped tipping Bob, Bob’s employer would lose out on the $5.12 an hour he was saving on his employee’s hourly wages.

What this scenario proves is that when an employer takes a tip credit, he is actually stealing the tips customers have presented his employee. In the above scenario, while Bob’s employer will lose income if customers stop tipping, Bob the busboy will lose nothing if customers stop tip and there is only one reason for this result. Bob’s employer is indirectly stealing the tips customers are presenting Bob when he takes a tip credit. Instead of directly stealing Bob’s tips, Bob’s employer is able to indirectly steal them by deducting them away from his hour pay.

What happens when you lower the hourly wages of an employee who receives tips is,
It nullifies part of the tips the employees is receiving. What it also does is, it transforms the customer’s tip from that which is intended to benefit the employee, into that which will benefit the employer. What most people don’t realize is, tip credits allow employers to benefit themselves to part of the tips customers are presenting their employees without any consent, what-so-ever from the customer.

How can a law be passed which gives over our citizen’s private property to special interests, namely restaurant owners, without any consent from our citizens? And it’s not just private property being given over to business owners, it’s the public’s good will. Customers don’t have to tip. There are no laws that require customers to tip. Customers are being charitable when they tip. The tip credit gives over our public’s good will and charity to a select group of business owner.

The truth of the matter is, a law stating that an employer can steal part of the tips his employee receives would bring the same results as what the tip credit has done. The only difference between a law allowing employers to directly steal part of their worker’s tips and the tip credit is, when taking a tip credit, the employer cannot directly take the tips and, instead, must indirectly take them by deducting them from the employee’s hourly wages.

Why do we have laws like this?

Who authorized our government to pass laws that give over our public’s good will and charity to a well organized group of business owners. The National Restaurant Association is one the biggest lobbyist in Washington D.C. They are the ones who have infuenced our elected officials into passing such a sick and twisted law.

Tip credits must be exposed for the blatant crimes they truly are. The tips you present workers in the service industry are being stolen. Is this the way you want your country to be?

The tip credit has been worded in a way that most people have no idea it actually allows business owners to indirectly steal part of the tips their worker’s receive.

Federal laws have even added a disclaimer to suggest that an employer who takes a tip credit is not actually stealing part of his worker’s tips. 29 USC section 203(m) explains that the tip credit can only be taken if all tips received by the employee are retained by the employee.

The truth of the matter is, when an employer takes a tip credit, he is retaining the financial benefit of those tips taken for the tip credit..

Is this just simantic’s or a con job?

Wouldn’t a plain reading of this federal law suggest that indirectly taking the employee’s tips would result in loss of such a credit? But that’s what the credit is. How can an employee retain all his tips if his employer is indirectly taking part of them from him.

Is there anyone out there who understands how corrupt this shit is?

Why is our country turning into an organized crime state. Wouldn’t you call a country who passes laws that allow certain people to openly commit crimes against other people an organized crime state? Are there any intelligent human beings in this country, or, am I just wasting my time on a bunch of braindead, spineless, multicelled amoebas?.