DETROIT – Michigan restaurant workers had mixed reactions about changes to the state’s minimum wage rules for tipped workers and the affect that will have on tipping.
Under the new ruling, the lower minimum wage for tipped workers, $3.93, will be phased out.
Read: Michigan Supreme Court restores minimum wage and sick leave laws reversed by Republicans years ago
Instead, tipped workers will make the state’s minimum wage of $10.33, which is expected to climb over the next few years.
Andrea Souther, who’s a server at Sam’s Ferndale Grill and a bartender elsewhere, is not happy about the ruling.
“When people start to realize you’re making hourly, they’ll tip less,” Southern said. “They’ll be like well you’re already making that minimum wage (of) $10 something an hour.”
Souther said she can make more money per hour on tips alone.
“I could make $50 in an hour (on tips),” Southern said. “But if you take my tips away, then I’m only making $10 an hour. It’ll cut into my livelihood.”
Restaurant owner Johnny Cannon believes people will continue to tip.
“It’s been a tradition so long that I think it’s a standard when people serve you, you want to tip them,” Cannon said.
Cannon owns Joe Louis Southern Kitchen and Lillie Mae’s Southern Buffet.
When asked if restaurants can afford to pay their servers a larger wage, he said yes.
“Because at the end of the day, how much are you really talking about? If you think about it, if I have a person working 8 hours a day and I’m going to pay them 5 dollars more, that’s 40 dollars,” Cannon said.
However, Cannon said the menu prices will increase as a result.
“Now, can the customers afford the adjustment? That’s where it comes at because I may have to charge a dollar more for my items,” Cannon said.
Cannon says most restaurants will likely have to increase menu prices to offset the cost of higher labor costs.
The Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association slammed the ruling, releasing the following statement.
“40% of full-service restaurants in Michigan are already unprofitable, meaning this decision is likely to force more than one in five of them to close permanently, eliminating up to 60,000 jobs along the way,” the statement said in part.