As Democrats start to work together on raising the minimum wage this year, one of the topics to discuss includes the issue of tipped wages. The federal tipped wage rate has been at $2.13 since 1991. Theoretically, an employer is obligated to supplement wages if tips come out below a certain level.
The recent House bill on minimum wages raised the tip wage to equal the regular minimum wage by the year 2027.
Eight states (AL, CA, HI, MN, MT, NV, OR, WA) now have a tipped minimum equal to their regular minimum wage. Sixteen states still have a minimum equal to the federal rate. The remaining states fall somewhere in between.
While some wait staff probably do quite well, especially in high end restaurants, for many other restaurant workers it may be time to bring tipped workers into line with other workers.
The Covid-19 relief legislation signed by President Biden on Thursday includes a larger increase in direct aid to families than in any other pandemic relief bills passed so far — an average of $6,660 for households with children, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. …
Ron (RC) Weakley (A.K.A., Darryl For A While At EV) says:
@Dave Barnes, One can only imagine that Rubio’s move is against Bezos and Amazon. Makes sense if Rubio raises campaign finance among the SMB ownership crowd.
I believe this tipped min wage thing is a total waste of time. I spent most of my high school and college years working in food service as a tipped employee, as did most of my family and friends.Even in the worst kind of places, we all earned far more than the minimum wage. Simply put, anyone working in a place where they didn’t make more than minimum wage would walk out the door in a NY minute.
Welcome back EM. There is truth to what you say. My wife and I liked to dine out at our favorite places. Sometimes we would bring our younger son wand the waitresses would hit on him. We had entertainment to boot. It was a rare occasion if we gave less than 20%. In Denver, one poorly trained waiter decided he did not like the fact we were not drinking that night due to one person having to abstain. He decided to be a “dick” in talking to me. I made sure “I” picked up the bill for our crowd of 12 and left him 10%. You dod not screw with the old guy at the table as they might be the one with the most money.
On the other hand in Michigan, when my wife was away; I would eat out at least once and at one of two places. They were all young waitresses, students, etc. I would leave 25% of the bill. One night when the place was fairly empty, I gave each of the other 3 $5. We always received good service. My wife has a good heart and we have been known to tip far greater than 20% if we heard of single moms or had exceptional service. Things have changed a bit since I retired. We still do 20%.
EMike, This tipped min wage thing is ONLY a waste of time if it has no chance of passing and the restaurant industry has been recently crushed under the operating restrictions used to combat a global pandemic. Oh, wait….
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/13/upshot/economy-optimism-boom.html?smid=tw-share<a href=”https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/13/upshot/economy-optimism-boom.html?smid=tw-share”>17 Reasons to Let the Economic Optimism Begin</a>NY Times – Neil Irwin – March 13 … I’m starting to get optimistic. It’s an odd feeling, because so many people are suffering — and because for so much of my career, a gloomy outlook has been the correct one.Predictions are a hard business, of course, and much could go wrong that makes the decades ahead as bad as, or worse than, the recent past. But this optimism is not just about the details of the new pandemic relief legislation or the politics of the moment. Rather, it stems from a diagnosis of three problematic mega-trends, all related.There has been a dearth of economy-altering innovation, the kind that fuels rapid growth in the economy’s productive potential. There has been a global glut of labor because of a period of rapid globalization and technological change that reduced workers’ bargaining power in rich countries. And there has been persistently inadequate demand for goods and services that government policy has unable to fix.There is not one reason, however, to think that these negative trends have run their course. There are 17. …(17 reasons, at the link.)
Cuomo Says He Won’t Bow to ‘Cancel Culture’ and Rejects Calls to Resign
NY Times – March 12, Facing a deluge of calls to resign from New York’s U.S. senators and the majority of its House Democrats, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo made clear on Friday he had no intention of quitting, deriding the mounting pressure from his own party as “cancel culture” and insisting he would not bow to it.
The calls first came in a coordinated barrage of statements released in the morning from more than a dozen House members — most of the state’s Democratic delegation — including Representatives Jerrold Nadler and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The sentiment was clear: Mr. Cuomo had lost the capacity to govern and must leave office.
By the end of the day, Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand had also called on Mr. Cuomo to step down.
“Due to the multiple, credible sexual harassment and misconduct allegations, it is clear that Governor Cuomo has lost the confidence of his governing partners and the people of New York,” the senators said in a joint statement late Friday afternoon. “Governor Cuomo should resign.”
NY Times – December 12 The public shaming of those deemed moral transgressors has been around for ages. As practiced today, though, is the custom a radical form of citizen justice or merely a handmaiden to capitalism?… To say “cancel culture,” then, is already to express a point of view, implicitly negative. Although cancel culture is not a movement — it has neither leaders nor membership, and those who take part in it do so erratically, maybe only once, and share no coherent ideology — it’s persistently attributed to the extremes of a political left and a fear-mongering specter of wokeness, itself a freighted term, originally derived and then distorted from the Black vernacular “woke,” which invokes a spirit of vigilance to see the world as it really is. …
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/14/upshot/stimulus-saving-mothers-medicaid.html?smid=tw-share NY Times – March 14 It’s easy to overlook amid the hundreds of pages of the $1.9 trillion stimulus plan President Biden signed into law Thursday, but a short section aims to combat America’s maternal mortality crisis by expanding health coverage for new mothers. The United States has the highest rate of maternal deaths in the industrialized world. A third of those deaths happen after delivery, when a significant share of American women experience a gap in coverage. Under current law, all states provide Medicaid coverage to low-income women who are pregnant. More than 40 percent of babies born each year in the United States are to mothers enrolled in the public health program. But coverage runs out 60 days after delivery, causing many women to become uninsured shortly after giving birth.The American Rescue Plan will let states extend Medicaid coverage for a full year, and provides federal funding to do so. As with the enhanced child tax credit, expanding postpartum Medicaid is another stimulus policy that bolsters the safety net supporting low-income parents in the United States. …
ROCKY MOUNT, Va. — One sunny day last spring, Bridgette Craighead was dancing the Electric Slide with three police officers in the grass next to the farmers’ market. It was the first Black Lives Matter protest this rural Virginia county had ever had, and Ms. Craighead, a 29-year-old hairdresser, had organized it. She had not known what to expect. But when the officers arrived, they were friendly. They held her signs high, and stood next to her, smiling. Later an officer brought pizzas and McDonald’s Happy Meals. They even politely ignored her cousin’s expired license plate. This, she thought, was the best of America. Police officers and Black Lives Matter activists laughing and dancing together. They were proving that, in some small way, their Southern county with its painful past was changing. They had gotten beyond the racist ways of older people. This made her feel proud. In a photograph from that day, Sgt. Thomas Robertson is smiling, and Ms. Craighead is standing behind him, her face tilted toward the sun and her fist held high.She did not see the officers around Rocky Mount much after that. But in early January, someone sent her a photograph. It showed Officer Jacob Fracker and Sergeant Robertson posing inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the day the building was stormed by Donald J. Trump’s most fervent supporters. At first, she did not believe it. Not her officers. But there they were, Officer Fracker giving the camera his middle finger. She confronted them on Facebook and they did not deny it. On the contrary, they were proud. …
I do not see ads; but then I run at a higher level on the general internet and I check “junk” constantly and find blocked content there. There is little if any money to be gained from advertising. Your comments are not in spam or trash and neither am I restoring them.
This is another example of why I do not believe anything the Chinese government says.
“A massive sandstorm has combined with already high air pollution to turn the skies in Beijing an eerie orange, and send some air quality measurements off the charts.
Air quality indexes recorded a “hazardous” 999 rating on Monday as commuters travelled to work through the thick, dark air across China’s capital and further west.
Chinese meteorological authorities issued its second highest alert level shortly before 7.30am, staying in place until midday. A broader warning for sand and dust blowing in from the western desert regions was put in effect until Tuesday morning.
When Beijing’s realtime air quality index (AQI) showed a reading of 999, Tokyo recorded 42, Sydney 17 and New York 26. Hong Kong and Taiwan recorded “moderate” readings of 66 and 87, respectively.
Levels of PM2.5, the small air pollution particles that infiltrate the lungs, were recorded above 600 micrograms in many parts of the city, reaching a 24-hour average of 200 before midday. The World Health Organization recommends average daily concentrations of just 25.”
Having been in Beijing multiple times since 2000, you do not open the windows if possible for fresh air. China is a fun place to visit; but, it has its issues. The people were always helpful though.
The more things change…… Further proof that Trump was not a cause, but an effect.”
I am fairly political, as should be obvious by now, and even I have to admit that I can’t see a political reason to get (or not to get) vaccinated. My immune system is resolutely apolitical, for which I thank god, because, if it weren’t, I’d go into anaphylaxis at every Republican campaign event, and CPAC might have turned me into one big fever blister. I can’t imagine being so consumed by my personal political beliefs that I wouldn’t protect myself from a resolutely nonpartisan virus. But then again, there has been a conservative backlash against public safety and public health for as long as there has been a conservative backlash against all aspects of the political commonwealth.
When I was growing up, Worcester refused to fluoridate its water for ideological reasons. (Among other opponents was the John Birch Society, which believed fluoridation to be a form of mind control, and the publisher of the local newspaper was a founding member of the JBS.) The controversy was nationwide, and its parameters should sound familiar to all of us today. From Science History:
..right-wing groups like the John Birch Society have long implied dark motives behind fluoridation. But more common are groups raising safety questions. Anti-fluoridation literature goes back over half a century, with titles like Robotry and Water: A Critique of Fluoridation (1959). Members of the Fluoride Action Network and Citizens for Safe Drinking Water have linked the chemical to several varieties of cancer, diminished intelligence, birth defects and declining birth rates, and heart disease—among other maladies. The Sierra Club worries about the “potential adverse impact of fluoridation on the environment, wildlife, and human health.
”Many opponents see fluoridation as a consequence of collusion among industry, government, and a scientific establishment in thrall to both. The scientific evidence—more complicated than revealed during the original Grand Rapids trials—collides with skeptical public opinion. Seven decades of controversy remind us that the two realms are never truly separate.
‘Nothing is really new. To paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson, stupid is in the saddle and rides far too much of mankind.”
http://How the U.S. Got It (Mostly) Right in the Economy’s Rescue https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/15/business/economy/coronavirus-economic-policy.html?smid=tw-shareHow the U.S. Got It (Mostly) Right in the Economy’s RescueNY Times – March 15When the coronavirus pandemic ripped a hole in the economy a year ago, many feared that the United States would repeat the experience of the last recession, when a timid and short-lived government response, in the view of many experts, led to years of high unemployment and anemic wage growth. Instead, the federal government responded with remarkable force and speed. Within weeks after the virus hit American shores, Congress had launched a multitrillion-dollar barrage of programs to expand unemployment benefits, rescue small businesses and send checks to most American households. And this time, unlike a decade ago, Washington is keeping the aid flowing even as the crisis begins to ease: On Thursday, President Biden signed a $1.9 trillion aid bill that will pump still more cash into households, businesses, and state and local governments. The Federal Reserve, too, acted swiftly, deploying emergency tools developed in the financial crisis a decade earlier. Those efforts helped safeguard the financial system — and the central bank has pledged to remain vigilant. The result is an economy far stronger than most forecasters expected last spring, even as the pandemic proved much worse than feared. The unemployment rate has fallen to 6.2 percent, from nearly 15 percent in April. Consumer spending is nearly back to its prepandemic level. Households are sitting on trillions of dollars in savings that could fuel an epic rebound as the health crisis eases. Yet not everyone made it into the lifeboats unscathed, if at all. Millions of laid-off workers waited weeks or months to begin receiving help, often with lasting financial consequences. Aid to hundreds of thousands of small businesses dried up long before they could welcome back customers; many will never reopen. Long lines at food banks and desperate pleas for help on social media reflected the number of people who slipped through the cracks.“The damage that has been done has occurred in a disparate fashion,” said Michelle Holder, a John Jay College economist who has studied the pandemic’s impact. “It’s occurred among low-income families. It’s occurred among Black and brown families. It’s certainly occurred among families that did not have a lot of resources to fall back on.”For many white-collar workers, Dr. Holder said, the pandemic recession may one day look like a mere “bump in the road.” But not for those hit hardest.“It wasn’t just a bump in the road if you were a low-wage worker, if you were a low-income family,” she said. “Their ability to recover is just not the same as ours.” …
As Democrats start to work together on raising the minimum wage this year, one of the topics to discuss includes the issue of tipped wages. The federal tipped wage rate has been at $2.13 since 1991. Theoretically, an employer is obligated to supplement wages if tips come out below a certain level.
The recent House bill on minimum wages raised the tip wage to equal the regular minimum wage by the year 2027.
Eight states (AL, CA, HI, MN, MT, NV, OR, WA) now have a tipped minimum equal to their regular minimum wage. Sixteen states still have a minimum equal to the federal rate. The remaining states fall somewhere in between.
While some wait staff probably do quite well, especially in high end restaurants, for many other restaurant workers it may be time to bring tipped workers into line with other workers.
Here’s an article on the Democratic House bill:
https://ny.eater.com/2021/1/27/22251414/minimum-wage-tipped-joe-biden-jobs-legislation
The Economic Policy Institute is doing a lot of work on the minimum wage. Here’s a link to their page on tipped wages:
https://www.epi.org/minimum-wage-tracker/#/tip_wage/
Jim:
As much of this makes sense, I do not believe “elements” of Congress besides Repubs will do much. They are not impacted by it.
Marco Rubio Backs Amazon Workers’ Union Push, Citing ‘Culture War Against Working-Class Values’
https://www.wsj.com/articles/sen-marco-rubio-supports-amazon-workers-push-to-unionize-in-alabama-11615559462
What?!
Which Families Will Receive the Most Money From the Stimulus Bill?
NY Times – March 12
The Covid-19 relief legislation signed by President Biden on Thursday includes a larger increase in direct aid to families than in any other pandemic relief bills passed so far — an average of $6,660 for households with children, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. …
@Dave Barnes, One can only imagine that Rubio’s move is against Bezos and Amazon. Makes sense if Rubio raises campaign finance among the SMB ownership crowd.
I believe this tipped min wage thing is a total waste of time. I spent most of my high school and college years working in food service as a tipped employee, as did most of my family and friends.Even in the worst kind of places, we all earned far more than the minimum wage. Simply put, anyone working in a place where they didn’t make more than minimum wage would walk out the door in a NY minute.
EM:
Welcome back EM. There is truth to what you say. My wife and I liked to dine out at our favorite places. Sometimes we would bring our younger son wand the waitresses would hit on him. We had entertainment to boot. It was a rare occasion if we gave less than 20%. In Denver, one poorly trained waiter decided he did not like the fact we were not drinking that night due to one person having to abstain. He decided to be a “dick” in talking to me. I made sure “I” picked up the bill for our crowd of 12 and left him 10%. You dod not screw with the old guy at the table as they might be the one with the most money.
On the other hand in Michigan, when my wife was away; I would eat out at least once and at one of two places. They were all young waitresses, students, etc. I would leave 25% of the bill. One night when the place was fairly empty, I gave each of the other 3 $5. We always received good service. My wife has a good heart and we have been known to tip far greater than 20% if we heard of single moms or had exceptional service. Things have changed a bit since I retired. We still do 20%.
Keep me posted on your ability to comment.
EMike, This tipped min wage thing is ONLY a waste of time if it has no chance of passing and the restaurant industry has been recently crushed under the operating restrictions used to combat a global pandemic. Oh, wait….
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/13/upshot/economy-optimism-boom.html?smid=tw-share<a href=”https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/13/upshot/economy-optimism-boom.html?smid=tw-share”>17 Reasons to Let the Economic Optimism Begin</a>NY Times – Neil Irwin – March 13 … I’m starting to get optimistic. It’s an odd feeling, because so many people are suffering — and because for so much of my career, a gloomy outlook has been the correct one.Predictions are a hard business, of course, and much could go wrong that makes the decades ahead as bad as, or worse than, the recent past. But this optimism is not just about the details of the new pandemic relief legislation or the politics of the moment. Rather, it stems from a diagnosis of three problematic mega-trends, all related.There has been a dearth of economy-altering innovation, the kind that fuels rapid growth in the economy’s productive potential. There has been a global glut of labor because of a period of rapid globalization and technological change that reduced workers’ bargaining power in rich countries. And there has been persistently inadequate demand for goods and services that government policy has unable to fix.There is not one reason, however, to think that these negative trends have run their course. There are 17. …(17 reasons, at the link.)
Cuomo Says He Won’t Bow to ‘Cancel Culture’ and Rejects Calls to Resign
NY Times – March 12, Facing a deluge of calls to resign from New York’s U.S. senators and the majority of its House Democrats, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo made clear on Friday he had no intention of quitting, deriding the mounting pressure from his own party as “cancel culture” and insisting he would not bow to it.
The calls first came in a coordinated barrage of statements released in the morning from more than a dozen House members — most of the state’s Democratic delegation — including Representatives Jerrold Nadler and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The sentiment was clear: Mr. Cuomo had lost the capacity to govern and must leave office.
By the end of the day, Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand had also called on Mr. Cuomo to step down.
“Due to the multiple, credible sexual harassment and misconduct allegations, it is clear that Governor Cuomo has lost the confidence of his governing partners and the people of New York,” the senators said in a joint statement late Friday afternoon. “Governor Cuomo should resign.”
The Long and Tortured History of Cancel Culture
NY Times – December 12 The public shaming of those deemed moral transgressors has been around for ages. As practiced today, though, is the custom a radical form of citizen justice or merely a handmaiden to capitalism?… To say “cancel culture,” then, is already to express a point of view, implicitly negative. Although cancel culture is not a movement — it has neither leaders nor membership, and those who take part in it do so erratically, maybe only once, and share no coherent ideology — it’s persistently attributed to the extremes of a political left and a fear-mongering specter of wokeness, itself a freighted term, originally derived and then distorted from the Black vernacular “woke,” which invokes a spirit of vigilance to see the world as it really is. …
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/14/upshot/stimulus-saving-mothers-medicaid.html?smid=tw-share NY Times – March 14 It’s easy to overlook amid the hundreds of pages of the $1.9 trillion stimulus plan President Biden signed into law Thursday, but a short section aims to combat America’s maternal mortality crisis by expanding health coverage for new mothers. The United States has the highest rate of maternal deaths in the industrialized world. A third of those deaths happen after delivery, when a significant share of American women experience a gap in coverage. Under current law, all states provide Medicaid coverage to low-income women who are pregnant. More than 40 percent of babies born each year in the United States are to mothers enrolled in the public health program. But coverage runs out 60 days after delivery, causing many women to become uninsured shortly after giving birth.The American Rescue Plan will let states extend Medicaid coverage for a full year, and provides federal funding to do so. As with the enhanced child tax credit, expanding postpartum Medicaid is another stimulus policy that bolsters the safety net supporting low-income parents in the United States. …
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/08/us/rocky-mount-capitol-riot-black-lives-matter.html?smid=tw-shareNY Times – March 8
Run,
Seems like almost every comment I make does not show up for a day or so.
Meanwhile, WTF? An NRA ad?
EM:
I do not see ads; but then I run at a higher level on the general internet and I check “junk” constantly and find blocked content there. There is little if any money to be gained from advertising. Your comments are not in spam or trash and neither am I restoring them.
This is another example of why I do not believe anything the Chinese government says.
“A massive sandstorm has combined with already high air pollution to turn the skies in Beijing an eerie orange, and send some air quality measurements off the charts.
Air quality indexes recorded a “hazardous” 999 rating on Monday as commuters travelled to work through the thick, dark air across China’s capital and further west.
Chinese meteorological authorities issued its second highest alert level shortly before 7.30am, staying in place until midday. A broader warning for sand and dust blowing in from the western desert regions was put in effect until Tuesday morning.
When Beijing’s realtime air quality index (AQI) showed a reading of 999, Tokyo recorded 42, Sydney 17 and New York 26. Hong Kong and Taiwan recorded “moderate” readings of 66 and 87, respectively.
Levels of PM2.5, the small air pollution particles that infiltrate the lungs, were recorded above 600 micrograms in many parts of the city, reaching a 24-hour average of 200 before midday. The World Health Organization recommends average daily concentrations of just 25.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/15/beijing-skies-turn-orange-as-sandstorm-and-pollution-send-readings-off-the-scale
EM:
Having been in Beijing multiple times since 2000, you do not open the windows if possible for fresh air. China is a fun place to visit; but, it has its issues. The people were always helpful though.
The more things change…… Further proof that Trump was not a cause, but an effect.”
I am fairly political, as should be obvious by now, and even I have to admit that I can’t see a political reason to get (or not to get) vaccinated. My immune system is resolutely apolitical, for which I thank god, because, if it weren’t, I’d go into anaphylaxis at every Republican campaign event, and CPAC might have turned me into one big fever blister. I can’t imagine being so consumed by my personal political beliefs that I wouldn’t protect myself from a resolutely nonpartisan virus. But then again, there has been a conservative backlash against public safety and public health for as long as there has been a conservative backlash against all aspects of the political commonwealth.
When I was growing up, Worcester refused to fluoridate its water for ideological reasons. (Among other opponents was the John Birch Society, which believed fluoridation to be a form of mind control, and the publisher of the local newspaper was a founding member of the JBS.) The controversy was nationwide, and its parameters should sound familiar to all of us today. From Science History:
‘Nothing is really new. To paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson, stupid is in the saddle and rides far too much of mankind.”
The Immune System Is Resolutely Apolitical, and So Is the Virus
EMichael:
Pulled this out of spam
http://How the U.S. Got It (Mostly) Right in the Economy’s Rescue https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/15/business/economy/coronavirus-economic-policy.html?smid=tw-shareHow the U.S. Got It (Mostly) Right in the Economy’s RescueNY Times – March 15When the coronavirus pandemic ripped a hole in the economy a year ago, many feared that the United States would repeat the experience of the last recession, when a timid and short-lived government response, in the view of many experts, led to years of high unemployment and anemic wage growth. Instead, the federal government responded with remarkable force and speed. Within weeks after the virus hit American shores, Congress had launched a multitrillion-dollar barrage of programs to expand unemployment benefits, rescue small businesses and send checks to most American households. And this time, unlike a decade ago, Washington is keeping the aid flowing even as the crisis begins to ease: On Thursday, President Biden signed a $1.9 trillion aid bill that will pump still more cash into households, businesses, and state and local governments. The Federal Reserve, too, acted swiftly, deploying emergency tools developed in the financial crisis a decade earlier. Those efforts helped safeguard the financial system — and the central bank has pledged to remain vigilant. The result is an economy far stronger than most forecasters expected last spring, even as the pandemic proved much worse than feared. The unemployment rate has fallen to 6.2 percent, from nearly 15 percent in April. Consumer spending is nearly back to its prepandemic level. Households are sitting on trillions of dollars in savings that could fuel an epic rebound as the health crisis eases. Yet not everyone made it into the lifeboats unscathed, if at all. Millions of laid-off workers waited weeks or months to begin receiving help, often with lasting financial consequences. Aid to hundreds of thousands of small businesses dried up long before they could welcome back customers; many will never reopen. Long lines at food banks and desperate pleas for help on social media reflected the number of people who slipped through the cracks.“The damage that has been done has occurred in a disparate fashion,” said Michelle Holder, a John Jay College economist who has studied the pandemic’s impact. “It’s occurred among low-income families. It’s occurred among Black and brown families. It’s certainly occurred among families that did not have a lot of resources to fall back on.”For many white-collar workers, Dr. Holder said, the pandemic recession may one day look like a mere “bump in the road.” But not for those hit hardest.“It wasn’t just a bump in the road if you were a low-wage worker, if you were a low-income family,” she said. “Their ability to recover is just not the same as ours.” …