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Legislature debates minimum wage hike
By Chad Eldred
Published:
Monday, April 11, 2005
Media Credit: Julie Leininger
As a pizza delivery driver, third-year student Tyler Davis receives minimum wage. Like many others, his wages will be impacted if a proposed minimum wage increase passes through the Legislature.
A bill that would increase minimum wage, in response to higher rates of inflation, is making its way through the state Legislature. Currently, the bill would increase minimum wage from $5.15 to $5.90 for large businesses making over $500,000, and from $4.90 to $5.15 for small businesses earning less than that amount.
State Rep. Mindy Greiling-DFL, co-authored the bill and said that she put her support behind it because she believes workers should be able to be self-sufficient.
"Time is money," Greiling said. "I think that lower wage earners, if they are working full time, should be earning enough so that they don't have to work two jobs and so that they can support themselves."
Raising minimum wage would help many low income workers who have financial obligations that need to be fulfilled and who also have to find time to live their lives, Greiling said.
"They would be able to feed their families better, or save for college if they are students, and they wouldn't have to work so many hours," Greiling said. "Some people are working a second job just to make ends meet. Then they can't enjoy life as much or spend time with other people or with family because they are just working."
Greiling said that students in college should have a special interest in the bill because many of them would greatly benefit from it.
"People sometimes say, 'well, teenagers are just using it for expendable money,' but now days, college costs so much that if they are trying to save for that, they need fair wages too," Greiling said. "They are trying to pay for their tuition and they are trying to study, so they need more time to not be working, but yet they need money."
Greiling said that she feels a raise in minimum wage would not only benefit the employees making $5.15, but said it would also boost the state's economy.
"I think that whenever people are well paid, then they spend more and they have more discretionary income. I think it is a win-win for a business if they really think about it," Greiling said.
Restaurants have criticized the bill the most, Greiling said. Some are pushing for a tip credit, which Minnesota law currently does not provide for, that would subtract the amount of tips earned from the servers overall wages.
"They were claiming that their profit is very small and that they can't afford to pay their waitresses more," Greiling said. "But I think most companies can afford it and sometimes the top people are making quite a profit and the lower down people are the ones that are working for not enough return."
Many restaurant owners are concerned about the impact a raise in minimum wage would have on their business and Mike Burnett, manager of Perkins, is no different.
"All that it is going to do is actually hurt our labor, which in turn is going to raise menu prices, which in turn is going to cut down customer flow," Burnett said. "I surely see a snowball effect happening with the minimum wage increase."
Burnett said that he does not feel that tipped employees need minimum wage because he said servers will oftentimes make more than the managers, estimating their wage at $20 an hour.
"They are at minimum wage with $5.15. However, you have to take into consideration tips they are actually pulling in," Burnett said. "Our servers use up more hours than any other department in the restaurant and having to pay additional to those servers would definitely impact our bottom dollar. With that being affected so greatly, I think it could have an effect on the entire economy."
Jody Foster, a server at Perkins and second-year student at SCSU, said she has been told by her managers to be thankful for receiving minimum wage.
"They have mentioned before that we should appreciate that we get paid $5.15 because other Perkins restaurants pay their waitresses $3.25 an hour," Foster said. "They said we should appreciate how lucky we are, to kind of make them sound good."
Foster said that she feels the managers would disregard a bill that would increase minimum wage.
"If it got raised, they would say 'we don't have to pay you the minimum wage' and they would keep it where it was at because they would just be losing money," she said.
Foster said that she felt it would be important to increase minimum wage because the costs of living have steadily risen.
"Inflation has gone up so high and gas prices have gone up so high, and I know if I were to choose to go into a different occupation, and I started at minimum wage, it would benefit me then because I know I am not going to be at Perkins for the rest of my life," Foster said.
The bill has already passed the Senate and is currently on the House floor. The Legislature adjourns May 23 and if all goes smoothly, the bill could be passed into law sometime in June.
State Rep. Diane Loeffler-DFL, another co-author of the bill, said she was excited about the possibility of it passing because she feels it has been a long time coming.
"We haven't increased minimum wage since 1997 and obviously there has been tremendous inflation since then and I think anyone who devotes 40 hours of their life to the service of others ought to be able to earn enough to meet their basic minimum needs."
Raising minimum wage would also allow more people to be self-sufficient and less dependent upon government subsidies, Loeffler said.
"I think that is the direction we ought to be going," Loeffler said. "There is some optimism that we might finally, after not having an increase in 8 years, have a chance to actually make that happen this time."
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