And it's true: Thirty-one states mandate higher minimum tipped wages than the feds - though those mandates vary widely. And its fiercest opposition comes from the National Restaurant Association.įor starters, the NRA argues, most tipped workers make more than the federal minimum of $2.13 an hour. That bill, like all legislation in Congress these days, faces an uncertain future. Tipped workers - a group that includes waiters, bartenders and busboys - would see their base wages rise to $7.07 an hour. The Democratic bill endorsed by Obama in his State of the Union address last month would raise the overall minimum wage in stages, from the current $7.25 to $10.10 an hour. 'It's easy to forget the overwhelming majority of tipped employees are low-income workers,' says Amy Traub, senior policy analyst at Demos, a liberal research and advocacy group. They may be in luck.Īs part of his plan to raise the minimum wage, President Obama has called for substantially increasing the base wage paid to tipped workers for the first time in decades.

Most bar and restaurant workers would prefer to bring home a little more cash.

'I'd work like a slave,' he said, 'and, of course, I'd wash your car.' When Woody Harrelson's character got hired as a bartender on Cheers, he was so excited, he insisted on working for no more than the minimum wage. The tipped minimum wage has been stuck at $2.13 since 1991. A Denny's waitress delivers breakfast to customers in Emeryville, Calif.

Restaurant busboy salary