Think Progress gives us this...Tom Emmer, the GOP-endorsed candidate for governor, told reporters at the Eagle Street Grille in St. Paul on Monday that the minimum wage for service workers who earn tips should be cut. Some waiters and bartenders, he noted, can earn as much as $100,000 a year, which he said is unfair to the employers that hire them.
“With the tips that they get to take home, they are some people earning over $100,000 a year. More than the very people providing the jobs and investing not only their life savings but their families’ future,” Emmer said.In making his case for cutting the minimum wage for service employees, Emmer cites a figure that is wildly misrepresentative. While it may be true that “some” service workers can earn “over $100,000 a year,” most do not. According to the latest data available from the Bureau of Labor Services (BLS), Minnesota food and beverage service workers earned an average of $10.45 an hour in May 2010, a number that includes tips.
Minnesota is one of few states that does not follow the federal minimum wage for tip-earners — $2.13 an hour. Instead, tip-earners make $5.25 to $7.25 an hour in addition to tips. Emmer says that hurts businesses’ bottom lines.
“Government can only inhibit business, can only keep it from growing, as opposed to creating jobs,” he said. “Right now, we have too much of it, guys. We’ve got to pull government back.”
That means that the average full-time worker whose salary Emmer wants to cut likely earns less than a third of the dollar figure he cited in pushing for the cuts. Rather than trying to punish working class Minnesotans for for the sins of the financial elite that sent the economy into a tailspin, maybe Emmer should be working to stop the massive teacher layoffs and tuition hikes that his Republican colleague Gov. Tim Pawlenty has caused with his stubborn refusal to raise revenues by taxing the super wealthy.
This Emmer guy is this weeks CRAZY CONSERVATIVE candidate. I hope the country is paying attention to people like him. Waiters, waitresses, and bartenders UNITE!!! Don't vote for those who want you to stay below the poverty line, who care only about the business owner and not the hard working American employees!
One of the comments at Think Progress has it exactly right!
KayInMaine says:
A republican would never demand that a CEO of a large company making $10,000,000/year have his or her pay cut either! Scumbags.
The fact this teabagger is saying the waitstaff and other service people are making $100,000/year shows how out of touch he is with the working class of America. The fact he believes this is a normal wage is why he has no concern or even cares about the welfare of this level of society.
16 comments:
This guy is the ultimate in nauseating. I can't believe he is from Minnesota. But Minnesota is a pretty progressive state and I would be very surprised to see him get anywhere near the govenors mansion.
They are appealing to their base and the base are the regular repuglicans. They all came out of the closet when the black man was elected and this guy is just another example of where they have been all along. Do not under estimate because there is hardly a repuglican out there who will vote for a Dem.
This is just another example of republicans disdain for the average American.
Why do republicans hate Americans?
All I could think when I first saw this was, "What a dumb ass." I wonder how many service industry people are employed in that state.
Tipped service workers aren't that different from performers- some can make a great living and make a ton of money, but the vast majority don't. And that's the key.
For the life of me, I don't see how any working class person can support the GOP'ers. I'm a Dem, and I have beefs with the party at times....but at least there's a conscience. I wonder if the GOP leadership has one.
It's simply a lie that some of the wait staff at that establishment are making $100,000.00 a year.
Check: startribune.com for the real stories.
Another idiot politician, that does not know the first thing about the real world of working.
Does the republican leadership have a conscience?
All you have to do is listen to what they say, look at what they do, and the answer is clearly they do not.
hey guys thanks for stopping by, It's 100 degrees here, what's it like where you are??
Ya know what's really the truth about the GOP, they are so stupid they don't even consider when they are backing business over working people who makes the businesses what they are?? THE EMPLOYEES!!!!!! DUH!!!! Pay your employees a living wage, hire good qualified people and treat them well and the business will prosper!! How hard is that to understand? The GOP wants businesses to profit but on the backs of the working class poor.
This really is a prime example of the rightwing America, look at them!!
It is about 11:30 am here in LA and it is overcast and about 65F. The sun should be out shortly as the clouds burn off, and we will probably see temperatures in the 75-80F range.
Jerry stop bragging about your cool weather, I can't breathe!! :-)))
68* sun out with a slight breeze here in Ski Town USA Sue.
But we also had frost on Monday and Tuesday.
no fair Tom! I swear it's unbearable here, I pity those with no AC!
Hey, I live on the west coast. What is this "weather" of which you speak?:-)
My apartment has air conditioning and so does my office. Outdoors is for people who can't handle computers.
As for Emmer, I doubt many waiters vote Republican, so he's not worried about turning them off. The kind of person who owns a business and resents paying even minimum wage is more his natural support base.
Somebody in Minnesota must be voting Republican. Isn't that where Bachmann's from? Every state has a constituency from, shall we say, the shallow end of the gene pool, that will vote for anyone who reliably bashes fags and abortion, and economic self-interest be damned.
Jerry, back to your first comment..."
Why do republicans hate Americans?". They don't hate Americans, they love Americans...Americans who over-spend beyond their means, and stay perpetually in debt. If you own the money, you own the monetary slaves, and Republicans are in the service of the money.
What they hate are Americans who call them on their shit...i.e., you, me, Sue, et al.
Sue, 77 and rain here on the plain Plains.
There is no Hall large enough to House the Shameful Republicans.
The Poor are to Blame mantra continues unabated from the Republican Party.
i would like to know where he gets his statistics from. how many people know waiters who earn 100k+ a year? he has to be talking about people who work in restaurants that the average joe schmo can't afford to even walk into, let alone eat at. it just goes to show how out of touch the rethugs are when it comes to average americans, yet the moronic teabaggers think they have their backs.
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