alt Hacker NewsCalifornia doesn't have a special minimum wage for tipped professions? When I was waiting tables a long time ago I think my pay was $1.95 an hour. It was usually just enough to cover tax on tips (the ones we admitted).
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Looks like it changed in 1988 due to a state supreme court ruling about a 1975 law. The law said the tips were the "sole property" of the employee and couldn't be counted by the employer as wages.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-11-01-mn-628-st...
California has not had a tipped minimum wage since at least the early 2000s, and I can’t seem to find any information on what is in the 1900s.
They eliminated the special minimum wage for tipped professions in Seattle too, which is currently $20.76 per hour.
Nope. Tipped workers are paid full minimum wage in California.
The difference is where the money comes from: directly from employer vs directly from customer. But in all cases *the sum of these sources* must equal the minimum wage.
If the employee is not taking home at least minimum wage, then the employer is guilty of wage theft.
If the employer does not make at least $x towards an employee's wage, the employer is guilty of wage theft.
So instead, read the CA's (and AK, MN, MT, NV, OR, WA) rule as "tips may not be credited towards an employee's salary".
[0] https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/minimum-wage/tipped