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Minimum wage tips bill fails in Montana senate

admin — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 04:09:17 +0000

By University of Montana reporter Natalie Neumann

A bill that would cap the minimum wage on employees who also get tips failed in the Montana Senate Tuesday.

The bill would have allowed employers to count tips as wages to make up the difference when the minimum wage rises beyond $6.90 an hour. Bill sponsor Don Steinbeisser, a Republican from Sidney, says the bill would support restaurant owners who are struggling to keep their businesses afloat.

“This bill is about jobs. Is it better to have a job with a little bit less, a little less tip, or not to have a job at all.”

Steinbeisser says Montana is one of seven states that doesn’t have a tip credit and says it’s a reason some prospective businesses don’t come to Montana.

Attorney General Steve Bullock spoke against the bill prior to the Senate session. Bullock spearheaded an initiative in 2006 to increase the minimum wage, which passed with 73 percent voter approval.

“Now at a time when we’re giving Wall Street millionaires handouts and bailouts, it’s important that we also remember the other side of the spectrum. It’s gonna take all of us working together to get out of the financial crisis but we shouldn’t do it on the backs of waiters, waitresses, bartenders and taxi cab drivers.”

Democratic Senator Joe Tropila of Great Falls voted against the bill. He said: “And having been in the business and having had waitress and cooks and chefs who make more money than the waitresses. They rely on their tips because they work at minimum wage. They are the poorest of the poor.”

Natalie Neumann reports from the capitol as a reporter for the University of Montana’s Legislative News Service.

Local restaurants cited for labor and wage violations

admin — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:07:37 +0000

By Elizabeth Gormisky Staff Writer for The Ithican
January 29th, 2009 http://theithacan.org

Two popular Ithaca restaurants have recently been cited by the New York State Department of Labor for underpaying and overworking their kitchen staffs.

On Jan. 21 a NYSDOL press release cited Taste of Thai and Tamarind for several infringements of labor laws. The NYSDOL charged the restaurants with not paying their employees minimum wage or overtime, keeping inaccurate records and not allowing employees a day of rest during the week. Tips meant for the wait staff were also being misappropriated to the kitchen staff. The owner of both restaurants, Ariya Pancharoen, has agreed to distribute $28,388 as full compensation to 36 past and current employees over a three-month period. Together the two restaurants employ approximately 25 workers.

Similar wage concerns have been raised at New Delhi Diamond’s Restaurant, Collegetown Pizzeria and Plum Tree Restaurant, according to Pete Meyers, co-founder of the Tompkins County Workers’ Center, a coalition of organizations that advocates workers’ rights. Taste of Thai and Tamarind’s lawyer, Scott Miller, said the owner of the restaurants responded to the NYSDOL immediately.

“The restaurant owners and management had an open door and an open book policy and fully cooperated with the Department of Labor,” Miller said.

Former Taste of Thai and Tamarind waitress and bartender Deidra Cross was the first person to approach the management of the restaurants with concerns about the kitchen staff in January 2008. Cross said she believed the Thai employees were being taken advantage of because they spoke little English.

“I don’t think these people knew because they came from such an oppressed place that this was not how we do things here,” Cross said. “Some of these people come from areas of Thailand where you have a high-paying job if you make $5 a day.”

Miller denied Cross’ claims and said the workers were being paid “well above minimum wage.”

Miller said several kitchen staff members were workers without proper permits, and the restaurants did not have the proper records to prove that they were being paid.

Miller said the restaurant no longer employs noncitizens who don’t have valid work permits.

The NYSDOL would not comment on the citizenship status of the workers as New York state labor laws apply to both illegal and legal immigrants.

Taste of Thai and former Tamarind waiter Matt Peterson said he thought the employees were treated differently than those at other restaurants where he had worked previously.

“You’d see the same people, and you’d know that they had been there [at the restaurant] all day,” Peterson said. “You’d see them sleeping in booths and stuff like that. You’d see them all arrive in the same van and at the end of the shift at the end of the night you’d seem them all leave in the same van.”

Peterson also said he recalled a couple from the kitchen staff that left the restaurant to work at Thai Cuisine because they were not granted enough days off.

Cross said she attempted to speak with the management about the employees for a period of eight weeks. When the management did not respond to her concerns, Cross contacted the TCWC.

Meyers said the NYSDOL was notified after failed attempts to negotiate with the restaurants’ owner.

“We met with the ownership of the restaurants and didn’t feel satisfied that they were giving us a straight answer,” Meyers said.

Meyers said the NYSDOL received an anonymous tip regarding the restaurants the same day the TCWC filed its complaints. The NYSDOL responded the following day.

NYSDOL spokesperson Joe Morrissey said on-site investigations began in July, which included interviewing workers and searching through records. Morrissey said notices of violations were issued to Taste of Thai in October and Tamarind in late November.

“The employer was cooperative,” Morrissey said. “We never had to issue a follow-up order to comply because [the management] responded to our initial notice immediately.”

Peterson said he noticed specific changes at Taste of Thai as well. He said the management no longer handles the tips and the wait staff takes control of the money. He also said there are posters in Thai explaining fair wages on the walls of the kitchen.

Miller said he does not foresee future labor-law violations at either Taste of Thai or Tamarind.

“Once they were made aware of what violations were occurring they immediately remedied those violations,” Miller said. “I don’t think there would be any violations in the future because they now know what they need to do to comply with the Department of Labor.”

The college community has had different responses to the incident at Taste of Thai and Tamarind.

Sophomore Christianne Enos, who has never dined at Taste of Thai, said she would not consider eating at the restaurant after learning of the wage violations.

“I would feel guilty supporting that,” she said. “Since it’s in Ithaca, it hits close to home. You don’t want to hear of people being mistreated so close to where you are.”

Don Beachler, associate professor of politics, said he attributed labor violations in Ithaca to the lack of unions in the United States and the ability of employers to easily fire workers.

“Unions balance out management and labor,” Beachler said. “[Violations] happen because we have vulnerable immigrant workers, and, by comparison to other industrialized nations, workers in the United States have few rights in the workplace.”

Beachler also said he believes labor issues are not at the forefront of the community’s concerns.

“Many so called liberals or leftists in Ithaca are not from the laboring class,” Beachler said. “They’re more concerned about identity

issues of race and gender. They’re not so concerned about labor and the inequality of wealth.”

Though she was fired from Taste of Thai on June 5, for reasons unrelated to the complaints, Cross said she hopes the problems are resolved with the workers. She said that she would not ask people to specifically boycott the restaurant but to confirm that the restaurant was not involved in illegal activity before choosing to dine there.

“Knowledge is power,” Cross said. “The more that people are aware, the more they can make educated decisions.”

To smoke or not to smoke? Barroom thespians find the play’s the thing.

admin — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:14:58 +0000

By MARY LYNN SMITH, Star Tribune

February 14, 2008

In Mark Benjamin’s view, every bar’s a stage and all the men and women merely smokers.

Benjamin, a former Marine, has a soft spot for VFW halls, American Legion clubs and small outstate bars he says have lost business because of the statewide smoking ban imposed in October.

In search of a loophole in the new law, the criminal defense attorney from Cambridge zeroed in on the clause that allows performers in a theatrical performance to smoke with impunity.

Wandering around the Renaissance Festival in Shakopee this summer, it hit Benjamin like the gun going off in Act III: “Theater is all around us.”

The resulting brainstorm, “The Tobacco Monologues” debuted at a Lake Mille Lacs bar last weekend when patrons ponied up a buck for a button that identified them as actors, with a license to light up.

More bars are expected to stage the performances this weekend.

Benjamin hopes his ploy will encourage lawmakers to seek a compromise that helps bar owners recoup lost business.

Not likely, say anti-smoking activists and state officials.

“This is pretty lame,” said Jeanne Weigum, executive director of the Association for Nonsmokers. “You know what they say, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck,” she said. “And if it looks like a bar, it’s a bar.”

Few participants in the lengthy battles that preceded adoption of the smoking ban in 2007 are eager to reopen those divisive debates. Been there, done that. The loophole, they pledge, will be closed. Soon.

Losses mounting

That’s not poetry to the ears of bar owners like Sheila Kromer, whose Barnacles Resort and Campground in Aitkin hosted the first smoke show.

Kromer said her January liquor sales are down about 26 percent from last year, in large part because of the smoking ban. The bar clears out by 10:30, she said, as smokers seek a warm place for a cigarette.

“They might go out once,” she said. “But when they head out a second time for a smoke, they just leave.”

But last weekend, the “play” kept the bar full until it closed at 1 a.m., Kromer said. “People had fun and they had a smile on their faces.”

A sheriff’s deputy showed up after someone complained but left without issuing a ticket because the bar seemed to be following the letter of the law.

Since then, Kromer said, she’s received about a dozen calls and e-mails from other bar owners interested in directing similar “theater nights.”

Kromer said she’ll be staging a repeat performance of the Tobacco Monologues and Benjamin, a Sunday school teacher, will be there in full garb: black velvet tights, white puffy shirt, black velvet hat complete with a plume and enormous black leather boots.

“All I can do is what seems reasonable to me, and this seems right,” Benjamin said. “This is a good cause. If we lose, we lose. I believe you do what you can even if the odds are stacked up against you.”

Kenn Rockler, executive director for the Tavern League of Minnesota, said he expects a half dozen bars will post playbills to bring smoking back this weekend.

“It’s legal,” he said. “I don’t know how long it’s going to last … before someone puts a stop to it.”

Most of his members say they’ve seen sales go down since the smoking ban went into effect “And some of them are going to be broke if they don’t do something,” Rockler said.

Minnesota Department of Health officials don’t know exactly what they plan to do about Benjamin’s smoking “theater productions.” Tom Hogan, manager of the department’s Indoor Environments and Radiation section, said he’s waiting for an opinion from the Attorney General’s office.

Sen. Kathy Sheran, DFL-Mankato, one of the ban’s major proponents, said she wasn’t surprised that someone would take advantage of an alleged loophole in the law. “We anticipated that people would try to find ways to not meet the spirit of the law,” she said. “I didn’t anticipate this.”

At first blush, said Doug Blanke, executive director of the Tobacco Law Center at William Mitchell College of Law, Benjamin’s “theater” provides people with a good chuckle. “But this is about health, and secondhand smoke is a really serious thing,” he said.

Critics of smoking bans in other states have made similar attempts to “squeeze” themselves into exemptions but they eventually lose in the courts, he said.

“I’m pretty sure that at the end of the day, we won’t have bars calling themselves street theaters,” he said. “How does that go: What’s in a name? That which we would call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet?”

And a bar filled with smoke, he concluded, is afoul of the law.

Utilize “The Secret” to earn bigger tips…

admin — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 06:40:21 +0000

Have you heard of the DVD called “the Secret”? Well it isn’t such a secret anymore. The DVD was released in March 2006 and according to Time Magazine, the DVD has sold 500,000 units within the first 6 months. Today it sells well over 5,000 copies a day! It ranked in Amazon’s Top-5 sellers during Christmas week; and a tie-in hardcover book just entered the Top 10 on the New York times bestseller list.

You may be wonder what this movie has to do with earning better tips, the answer is EVERYTHING! Please read on and learn to harness the power.

The amazing thing about “the Secret” is that you won’t find it in your local Blockbuster or Barnes and Noble, it is selling briskly through new-age bookstores. “It’s become the biggest selling item in the 30-year history of our store,” says Harmony Rose Allor, a buyer at West Hollywood’s popular metaphysical bookshop, The Bodhi Tree. it is “word-of-mouth” marketing at it best.

So what is the secret to “the Secret’s” success? It’s is a “transformational movie”, where a person’s view on life and the laws of life will no longer be the same after watching this movie. In a sense, it has created the same kind of effect as “the Da Vinci Code” and the 2004 hit cult movie “What the Bleep Do We Know”. The movie has created such waves that it has already been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Live and the Ellen DeGeneres show.

At the core of the movie is a central philosophy called “the Law of Attraction”. In fact, the movie itself was inspired by this very same law when the producer read a book called “the Science of Getting Rich” by Wallace D. Wattles. This books was written in 1910!

This philosophy states that we create our reality, both good and bad! The message is delivered through 24 “teachers” which include prosperity preachers, chiropractic healers, relationship gurus, life coaches and motivational speakers — into one clear, cohesive voice. The movie is a “must watch” for anyone interested in taking charge of their life and in creating the life of their dreams.

Following on the success of the Secret, 3 of the core teachers – namely Bob Proctor and Jack Canfield have collaborated to produce a wealth building program called “the Secret Science of Getting Rich Seminar”. This program is based on the book that inspired the movie and is set to make history as the fastest selling personal development program in history.

What is the Science of Getting Rich about? Well in the words of Wallace D. Wattles, “The ownership of money and property comes as a result of doing things in a certain way. Those who do things in this certain way, whether on purpose or accidentally, get rich. Those who do not do things in this certain way, no matter how hard they work or how able they are, remain poor. It is a natural law that like causes always produce like effects. Therefore, any man or woman who learns to do things in this certain way will infallibly get rich.” The Science of Getting Rich is all about teaching how to do things in this “certain” way to create wealth.

The success of this program is built on several rock solid foundations. These factors include: the phenomenal success of “the Secret”, the timeless concepts from the Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles, the credibility of successful personal improvement teachers and New Thought leaders of our time, and the Internet as the distribution medium.

After learning what “the Secret” was and how it worked, I was shocked at how fast using it’s powers was! It has changed my life forever! You can most definitely use it to improve your tips and much more in your day-to-day life. In fact, if you are really not happy even being in the service industry I can’t think of a better way to find your way out. Do not underestimate the power of “the Secret” it affects you whether you know about it or not. Harness it’s power – it’s always there for you!

Tom Mason – Founder Tip20!

Learn more about the Secret…

Should Tipping Be Voluntary?

admin — Wed, 10 Jul 2002 19:16:04 +0000

by Jacob G. Hornberger, July 2001

If New Deal legislation had been enacted in the 1930s requiring people to tip waiters 15 percent of the total amount of their restaurant bill, we might have been subjected to the following debate today:

Repeal Advocate: Don’t you think we ought to repeal the tipping law and let each person decide for himself how much to tip a waiter or, for that matter, whether to tip at all?

Law Advocate: Are you crazy? If the law didn’t require people to tip their waiters, no one would tip. We’re lucky that President Franklin Roosevelt had the foresight to realize that people can’t be trusted with that decision.

Repeal Advocate: But we rely on the free market in other areas of our lives, and it seems to work. For example, we don’t force people to fund churches or cancer research, and yet people do so anyway. Why not rely on the free market for tipping?

Law Advocate: The free market is good up to a point, but it’s not perfect. Government often has to step in to make certain it works. In fact, that’s why Congress enacted President Roosevelt’s tipping law. During the Great Depression, waiters were threatened with starvation. Something had to be done.

Repeal Advocate: Isn’t the free market simply a process in which people are trading for mutual gain? Why should government officials be permitted to interfere with that? And I’ve never heard of any waiters starving to death in the United States, even during the Depression. Why not simply leave people free to help others on a voluntary basis rather than force them to do so?

Law Advocate: You don’t know human nature. You put too much faith in people and the free market. Sometimes government coercion is necessary to make people do the right thing.

Repeal Advocate: Shouldn’t a person have the right to decide for himself what to do with his own money?

Law Advocate: Of course, that’s what America stands for. But no one is forced to go into a restaurant. All the law says is that if you do eat out, you’re going to have to tip your waiter. Anyway, it’s only 15 percent, and so what’s the big deal? The tipping law also ensures that a person is caring and compassionate when he goes out to eat. What’s wrong with that?

Repeal Advocate: How can you consider him caring and compassionate when he is forced to leave a tip? I thought that compassion entailed voluntary, not coerced, action.

Law Advocate: In a democratic society, laws are made by the people. In America, we are the government. Because of our tipping law, you’re a better person even if you never go out to eat.

Repeal Advocate: Wouldn’t some people give more than 15 percent if the law didn’t require them to tip that amount?

Law Advocate: Not likely. Again, you trust people too much. After all, the tipping laws do not prevent people from giving more than the required 15 percent, and yet hardly anyone ever does so.

Repeal Advocate: Don’t you think that service would improve if waiters weren’t guaranteed a tip?

Law Advocate: You’re assuming there would be service. Without FDR’s tipping law, there would be no waiters, which means a lot less restaurants. Roosevelt’s New Deal saved not only America’s free-enterprise system but its restaurant business too.

Repeal Advocate: Why not simply leave it to each restaurant to decide whether a tip is required?

Law Advocate: Because those restaurants that didn’t require tipping would soon drive out of business those that did. And it wouldn’t be long before we had either no restaurants or only self-service ones.

Repeal Advocate: You’ve convinced me. Repealing the tipping law is too radical an idea. It might well cause starvation among waiters and closures of restaurants all across the country. Anyway, waiters have a right to a tip. Isn’t that what America is all about?

Law Advocate: You bet! And it’s also what makes us a free and compassionate people. The tipping law isn’t perfect, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water.

Mr. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation (www.fff.org) in Fairfax, Va., which has just published Tethered Citizens: Time to Repeal the Welfare State.