No minimum wage discussion this year

Friday, February 12, 2010

(Laramie Boomerang)

No minimum wage discussion this year

By Aaron LeClair / Laramie Boomerang, Feb 12, 2010

The Wyoming House of Representatives voted to not introduce a bill that would have raised the state’s minimum wage for both tipped and non-tipped employees.

House Bill 21 failed on a 23-35 vote on Wednesday. A bill that is introduced during a budget session requires a two-thirds vote for introduction to a committee.

Albany County representatives Glenn Moniz and Kermit Brown voted against HB 21, while Seth Carson and Cathy Connolly voted for the bill.

HB 21 would have raised the minimum wage for all workers from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour, which is the federal standard as outlined in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The bill also would have raised the minimum wage for tipped employees from $2.13 to $5 per hour, and for employees under 20 from $4.25 to $6.15 per hour during their first 90 days of employment.

According to a press release from the Wyoming Democratic Party, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. George Bagby, D-Rawlins, said he was disappointed that HB 21 didn’t even reach committee.

However, he said its failure would not prevent him from introducing a similar bill in the future.

“This is not a fight we are willing to give up,” he said.

Rep. Joe Barbuto, D-Rock Springs, said the House’s voting down the bill before it could reach committee prevented discussion involving Wyoming residents who are employed in the service industry.

“It is a disservice to the people of Wyoming to not even give them the chance to testify on something that would have such an overwhelming impact on so many of their lives,” he said.

On the House floor on Wednesday, Bagby said the bill was designed to decrease the gender wage gap in Wyoming by increasing the hourly minimum wage of servers.

“What this bill is trying to do is raise the minimum wage for servers — the majority of which are women — from $2.13 per hour to $5 per hour,” he said. “Servers make $2.13 per hour, $17.04 for an eight-hour shift, and some servers work less than eight hours. This is well below the poverty level.”

In addition to a low hourly wage, tips are too inconsistent for servers to make a decent living, Bagby said.

“The major problem is tips are not stable, requiring the public to cover basic wages for servers,” he said. “It’s extremely hard on $2.13 an hour to make a living, especially when you are trying to raise young children.”

Bagby said the minimum wage for servers was established in 2001, and it hasn’t been updated in nine years.

“Morally and economically, this is the right thing to do,” he said.

In opposition to HB 21, Rep. Jack Landon Jr., R-Sheridan, said the implication that servers are earning a net $2.13 per hour is untrue.

He said employers are required by law to subsidize a server’s hourly wage and tips if the two do not equal the federal minimum wage.

“Even though the minimum wage is $2 and whatever, it is illegal to not make up that difference between the state minimum wage and the federal minimum wage,” Landon said. “Employers must make up that difference.”

Rep. Tim Stubson, R-Casper, who was also opposed to HB 21, said the bill mandates the payment of $7.25 per hour no matter how much a server makes in tips.

“You can have an employee that’s making $100 an hour in tips, and yet the employer doesn’t get to offset their wage at all,” Stubson said. “They have to pay the $7.25.”

Brown, meanwhile, said raising the minimum wage for tipped employees would result in non-tipped workers being paid less.

“By raising the minimum (wage) to $7.25 an hour for somebody that’s making $100 an hour with tips, that takes away from the pot of money the employer has to share with the people in the back room that don’t get tips, like the dishwashers,” he said. “By leaving it low, they still get their $100 an hour, but it leaves the employer with more money to pay those who don’t get any tips.”

In his rebuttal, Bagby refuted the argument that servers don’t need an hourly wage increase because they make hundreds of dollars in tips per shift.

“I wish that I could find a waitress that got $100 an hour a night in tips,” he said. “I’d like to meet her.”

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 26 states have a minimum wage that equals the federal rate of $7.25 per hour, while 14 states and the District of Columbia have a minimum wage that exceeds the federal standard.

Washington State has the highest minimum wage at $8.55 per hour.

Currently, Wyoming, Colorado, Minnesota, Arkansas, Georgia and Puerto Rico are the only states or territories that have a minimum wage lower than $7.25 per hour.

In fact, both Wyoming and Georgia have the lowest minimum wage ($5.15 per hour) of any state or territory that has minimum wage laws.

South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee make up the five states or territories that do not have minimum wage laws at all.

For tipped employees, the federal minimum wage is $2.13 per hour, but must meet the minimum wage of $7.25 (or $5.15 in Wyoming) per hour when tip credit allowances and direct wages are taken into account.

If tip credit allowance and the $2.13 hourly wage do not equal the minimum wage, the employer must make up the difference.

In past debates, opponents of raising the hourly wage for tipped employees have said servers make much more per hour than other workers.

Proponents, however, have said servers are usually scheduled to work four hours or less a day and 20 hours or less per week, which results in less income than a full-time, 40-hour per week employee in spite of tips.