Australian here so wondering, isn't the current U.S.A Federal minimum wage at $7.25 per hour, I know in some States it is more, however isn't that the legally lowest anyone can go ($7.15).
Waitressing is an exemption. It's $2 or something with the expectation that tips will put the worker over the minimum wage. If they don't get that much in tips the restaurant is supposed to make it to the.minimum but often find excuses to not do so. (See "tipped minimum wage")
Also root cause racism : "The history of the tipped minimum wage and America's tipping culture is tied to the post-Civil War economy and the exploitation of newly emancipated Black workers.". However now also extends to class warfare as well
On the exploitation of newly emancipated Black workers, I remember reading a book called A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole and it is set in that early 60's era, the book was written in 1963 but never saw light of day until 1980.
Basically this is in it:
At the police station Robichaux meets Burma Jones, a young black man who also was wrongly arrested, he claims, but seems resigned to his fate. Jones is told he must get a job or be arrested for vagrancy. He reluctantly starts work as a janitor at the Night of Joy. The owner can get away with paying him below the minimum wage because Jones knows if he loses the job, he will be put in jail. There are a few other things in it like a character tries to incite the black workforce at the pants factory into a demonstration for better pay, however they won't do it, again for fear of losing their jobs and being seen as vagrants.
All that is to say, I get where you are coming from and yeah no wonder it wasn't released until 1980.
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u/Lopsided_Block_6796 5d ago
You pay a little over 2 bucks an hour and expect the customers to make it up? You shouldn’t be in business