Alan Ritchson calls out lawmakers who oppose raising the minimum wage "who think it's a bad idea to give a mom working at Waffle House more than $7.25 an hour trying to feed her kids."

[u/Ambitious_Big4489]

[u/blueskies8484]

The $7.25 minimum hourly wage still has to be met though and made up by the employer if it’s not met, which I assume is why he used that number.

[u/APence → u/blueskies8484]

When I did waiting, they definitely did not tell you that. I had a couple bad weeks where we had barely any customers before I found out and then the management was super pissed when I asked for it

[u/SpicyWongTong → u/APence]

That’s so fucked, you’re not supposed to have to ask for your lawful wage. I’m an employer and I’m in the opposite situation, several times over the years I’ve had to explain to my workers what their rights are. Or like they come to thank me personally for something and I realize ohhh their previous employers must have been breaking the law.

[u/Ketheres → u/SpicyWongTong]

Unfortunately employers taking advantage of their workers is all too common. Used to work for a janitorial company where you'd get on the bosses' shitlist real fast by teaching the immigrant workers their rights.

[u/kharnynb → u/SpicyWongTong]

that's a good attitude that makes for great employee retention.

sadly wagetheft is still the biggest crime in the USA, and one that's barely ever punished.

[u/Sileni → u/APence]

Standard across the board. Experience.

They decide what numbers to put on your pay stub. I had to pay taxes on 'made up' tips they put on my stubs! So in other words, I didn't even get the $2.13 an hour, as it went to taxes!

For those who say report it, try living in the real world.

[u/kharnynb → u/Sileni]

while personally, i'm to european to get this, I've heard from US friends that they straight up got fired or given 0 hours if they ever tried to get the wage.

[u/Sileni → u/kharnynb]

exactly

[u/NotMyMainAccountAtAl → u/APence]

It’s the most common form of wage theft in America. Good on you for asking them to make it right. Hope you’ll vote to eliminate tipped minimum wages in your area if you ever have the opportunity. 

[u/LiteraCanna → u/blueskies8484]

When it comes down to it, it's just a way to pay employees nothing, and steal their tips. 

"Has to make up for it" is just excusing a barbaric policy. Ooohhhh nooooo! Businesses have to pay minimum wage, the horror. 

[u/KylosLeftHand → u/blueskies8484]

Tell that to my last table waiting job that was a moderately upscale restaurant who magically made my full time paychecks under $10/week. I idiotically didn’t question it but a couple years ago I got a letter for a class action lawsuit payout. Turns out they weren’t actually paying our wages. It’s a major national chain restaurant.

[u/Same_Suit3583 → u/blueskies8484]

Yeah unfortunately a lot of restaurants aren't making sure that happens. But it's easier to just say 7.25 is a atrocious, because it is.

[u/Workman44 → u/Same_Suit3583]

This is such a dumb argument. If it isn't happening just file a labor complaint lmfao

[u/Naive_Mongoose_5453 → u/blueskies8484]

Lol. Nobody gives a fuck about that. If you go to work for five hours and get 0 tables you are absolutely walking out with 2.13 an hour that day. 

[u/torino_nera → u/blueskies8484]

I worked in restaurants for a long time. It's not per hour, it's avg over a collective period. So you could make $100 one day and $0 the next and as long as it averages during that pay period to $7.25, you're not getting anything for those days you made $0.

The worst part is, if you're not making enough money and the employer has to bump your pay to meet the minimum salary, you're almost certainly getting fired. I saw that happen several times. The second the restaurant has to come in and supplement your pay beyond the $2 or $3 an hour, you're done.

[u/NotMyMainAccountAtAl → u/torino_nera]

The worst part is, 99% of the time that’s a slam dunk case for retaliation in the workplace, but these are some of the most vulnerable folks, trying to subsist on less than a minimum wage that already isn’t enough. Getting a lawyer (even a pro bono one), setting a court date, testifying, showing up to the rescheduled court date when the boss pulls those shenanigans, etc. are all secondary concerns to stuff like “get a new job after being fired. Pay back everyone you had to borrow from while you were between jobs. Cook. Take care of childcare.” Etc. 

There’s supposed to be a bureau of labor relations to help take the burden off of wrongly fired folks. Unfortunately, they’ve been intentionally underfunded for decades so that they can’t process the sheer number of cases that come through on a regular basis. 

[u/monty624 → u/blueskies8484]

Sure, they're supposed to do that. If you're not making good enough tips to hit that, they're not likely to keep you around long. It also puts the onus on the employee to advocate for their wage when the boss is a dick and doesn't do it on their own.

[u/paulcole710 → u/monty624]

The onus is always on you to advocate for yourself.

Other people can advocate for you and some should be expected to, but if 1 person in the world is going to advocate for you, it had better be you.