Tipped workers see
threat in bill’s tax credit

The minimum wage change
will cut into base pay, they say

By Lisa Asato
Star-Bulletin

Carmen Jimenez averages $160 a night in tips serving beer, burgers and other fare at Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant.

But that is no reason to further decrease her wages, which are already below the state's minimum of $5.25 an hour, said Jimenez, a waitress and cocktail server at the Aloha Tower Marketplace eatery. "Our paychecks are already nil."

By law, tipped employees can be paid 20 cents less than the minimum wage as long as tips make up the difference by 50 cents or more. Last week, the House Labor and Public Employment Committee approved a bill that would decrease the base pay of tip earners by changing the 20-cent tip credit to a percentage.

The proposal would let employers pay tipped employees 10 percent less than the minimum wage. That means while others would see a minimum wage increase to $5.50 from $5.25 on July 1, 2002, and to $6 the next year, waitresses like Jimenez would initially face a decrease in pay, to $4.95 from $5.05 an hour, or 10 percent less than the proposed $5.50.

"Even on a good night, we have to save our tips because our paychecks are nil," said Jimenez, adding that she shares a portion of tips with the hostess, food runner and bartender.

The tip credit has been a sticking point at the Legislature, where the Senate Labor Committee recently wrangled with a minimum wage bill that failed to win approval until the chairman said he would not remove the tip credit.

The Hawaii Restaurant Association has proposed increasing the tip credit to 25 percent. Not all restaurants take advantage of it, but the proposal has some thinking twice.

Zippy's Restaurants pays its servers and bartenders $5.25 an hour, said Aileen Kozai, director of human resources for the chain of 15 restaurants. It does so to attract qualified workers in a tight labor market, she said. However, she said, a 10 percent tip credit would deserve review. "It's something to consider because labor is one of our largest costs, definitely."

Restaurateur Ed Greene said he pays tipped employees the minimum wage because the tip credit is not worth his bookkeeper's time. He employs about 75 tipped employees at three Jameson's restaurants on Oahu and the Big Island.

"If I could save 55 cents an hour on each of those people, it would be a significant amount of money, enough to prompt me to do it," he said.

Bob Marino, a server at Jameson's Seafood Grill at Restaurant Row, said when he tended bar in New York, he didn't care that his hourly wage was about $2 an hour because his tips totaled more than "$100 a night."

"Here, it's different," he said. "Every dollar counts for me."

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