Fascinating little piece about the minimum wage in the US.

According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, about two million
American workers, 2.7 percent of the overall work force, earned the
minimum hourly wage of $5.15 or less in 2004, the last year for which
such statistics were available. Those workers were generally young
(half were under 25, and a quarter were teenagers), unmarried and had
not earned a high school diploma. About three-fifths of all workers
paid at or below the federal minimum wage worked in bars and
restaurants, and many received tips to supplement their basic wages.

Depending on how you cut those numbers up there’s no one who isn’t either in their first few years of work, completely unqualified and also earning tips. Certainly, there’s only 800,000 who aren’t earning tips.

As one who has actually worked for less than minimum wage in a US restaurant I can tell you that those who do get tips (waiters,  bartenders, busboys and bar backs)  are the ones who get tless than minimum. Those not included in the tipping system (cashiers, hosts, kitchen staff) do not make minimum wage, they get well above it.

It might also be worth noting that the tips are generally pretty good. Back in 1981 I was taking home $700/800 a week in tips.

One thing to note about the federal minimum wage is that employers can indeed pay less than that minimum if the employee is also earning tips that more than cover the discount.

What a lot of the state minimum wage laws discussed in the article fail to do is allow that exemption.

Advocates of an increase in the minimum wage said that inflation had so
eroded the value of the minimum wage in the last nine years that it was
worth less today in real terms than at any time since 1955. They also
cited studies that found that raising the minimum wage did not cause
job loss, as opponents argue. According to these studies, employers can
absorb the higher labor costs through efficiencies, less employee
turnover and higher productivity.

Which is really what opponents of minimum wages also say. Employers can absorb the higher labour costs through efficiencies and higher productivity. That is by employing fewer labourers to do the work.

Seems a bit odd to defend the minimum wage against the charge that it cuts jobs by stating that it cuts jobs really.