Writing over at True North, Sheila Corbett Kihne – a former restaurant hostess – explains to the likes of John Tevlin and pretty much every leftyblogger how the restaurant trade works…
….since it seems none of them know anything about the business at all:
Now- let’s look at a basic scenario. Waitstaff gets paid $6.00 per hour by the employer- employer is given the OPTION to pay them $2.50 an hour and the employee has to make up that $3.50 per hour in tips. That equates to one table per hour with a Republican customer and a $18 tab (or with a Democrat a $24 tab.)
Employer saves $3.50 per hour, $140 per week, $560 per month, $6,720 per year multiplied by an entire waitstaff this is a TON of money. Money that would most likely be spent on expanding or improving the business. (Newflash to those who have never been in the restaurant business: there is not a lot of extra cash and most cash gets thrown right back into growing the business or saving money to handle the downturns.)
Perhaps a restaurant owner chooses to hire a better chef at a higher salary, word gets out that the food is excellent and business grows. Perhaps they decide to take out some new advertising to bring in new business. Perhaps they open a new patio or buy some nicer tables and chairs. Maybe they save up to open a second location. All of these things could give them the competitive edge they need to survive in this crappy economy. And if they’re able to survive they don’t have to layoff employees, if they’re somehow able to thrive maybe they can even hire more employees. Have you been to a restaurant lately? Unless it’s McDonalds, they’re all struggling. How much in commercial property taxes does the government lose when one closes? How much in sales tax, income tax?
Sheila also notes a factoid that virtually none of the Twin Cities’ media’s chattering classes can bother to mention; 43 states currently have the law that Emmer is proposing; as I’ve noted here in the past, Minnesota had the same law until 1990, when a DFL-controlled legislature insisted the lot of waitresses would improve greatly with a mandatory minimum wage – which, combined with Minnesota’s deeply stupid smoking law has left a lot of waitstaff out of work over the years.
It’s a beautiful morning, and to make it just that much better, I’d like to share a little something with everyone.
Although it doesn’t look like it, the Emmer kerfluffle is what started this meltdown…enjoy!
This isn’t a post you want to read but I’m uploading it because I want my email to MinnPost to be published somewhere, and it sure as hell isn’t going to be posted at MinnPost.
To the editor:
In all candor I no longer believe you have a civility policy at MinnPost other than to strike liberal commenters’ remarks while allowing right wingers to savage others. Removing comments that have been allowed to stand for over a day is pathetic and invites more abuse.
I’ve been monitoring a couple of threads but within a couple of hours one got jammed by Mr. Swift and friends and frankly I feel quite abused by those comments. Sniff…sniff The discussion starts in one thread and was continued to another one.
….snipped a hi-larious, moonbat Pw3ning comment thread for brevity
Sorry, I just don’t believe you folks are serious about the civility. Not in the slightest. Swift and friends punk you daily, and you don’t have the balls to call them on it. You just delete the occasional comment and pretend it never happened.
In these exchanges Swift calls me an IRS informant for making a joke about the MN Dept. of Revenue. In the circles he travels in, calling someone an IRS agent is practically the same as pinning a target on them. I don’t know about “targets”, but nobody likes a rat; that’s why it’s not funny to make “jokes” about snitching on people
I won’t be participating in your comments anymore. I can defend myself in my own comments on my blog,
Wait, what?
Uh, oh….pffft…….oh, no…..
BwaaaAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaa(coff-coff)HAHA
hahahahahahahahaaaaaaahahaha(yup, you can delete everyting and run, little bunny, run!)hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaAAHAHAHAHah
Oh, gawd that was good. OK, back to Da Wedge’s tear stained letter:
I can defend myself at the Strib (because no one’s watching), but I can’t defend myself when only one side has to play by the rules and the other side is in it just to mau mau the liberal wussies at the MinnPost.
Swift and Berg laugh their asses off at you people every day because you let them lie and provoke others. They have no interest in the news, and plague your comments solely for political mischief.
Suckers. I’ve played by the rules yet you’ve approved a comment that falsely accuses me of being an IRS informant when I never mentioned the IRS at all. You don’t have standards, you’re just reacting after the fact.
Mark Gisleson
HAHAHA! That stinking moonbat squirted enough tears to refill the Golf of Mexico with fresh salt water!
Ah, god…I almost feel like having a smoke.
After you wipe the coffee off your monitors, be sure to read the whole thing, including the part where da wedge tells “a joke” that he’s just dropped a dime on waitresses to the MN Dept. of Rev’nue.
http://norwegianity.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/skip-this-post/
Mitch, you and I really have to get together sometime soon to laugh our asses off at “those people”.
This story sounds fishy? Doesn’t the gov’t do all of that stuff for you?
How can you not laugh your ass off at “those people”?
Swift and Berg laugh their asses off at you people every day because you let them lie and provoke others
“Lie?”
Wow. Big talk coming from a “Trigger”.
I’d go check out the context, but that would involve reading “Norwegianity”. I just can’t.
I’ll say this; if Gisleson think I “lie” about anything, he’s invited to show me where and how. He can’t, of course, since barring the odd error (it happens), the only “lie” you’ll ever see at Shot In The Dark is the one defined as “disagreeing with…” whomever is whining about it.
And that is all.
I know quite a few people who work for tips. They always under report their earnings to the IRS, with the active connivance of management. I can see how, in a casual conversation, some restaurant owner might tell someone that they have servers making $100k/year, then back off that statement when it looks as though it might get the attention of tax authorities.
When it comes to squirting bitter, bitter tears all over, Chuck, no government could do the job better than a de-pelted moonbat.
You know what is really funny, Mitch? Minnpost allows yours truly to become the topic of spittle flecked comment threads all the time, and spikes any rebuttal I might try to make.
They do post plenty of my comments, it’s true, but I have to walk on pins and needles. For da wedge to suggest Minnpost’s censors are in the bag for conservatives is just too funny!
As that Great American, Bugs Bunny once said: “What a maroon!”
One of my best friends in college (late ’70s) had had a gig at a popular, upscale restaurant in St. Louis and he continued to work there during seasonal breaks. 10 years after we graduated and he had a “professional” PR job I found out he was still waiting tables there as well. When I asked him why he said, “Dude, I made $250 in tips just on Christmas Eve!” (He also worked two years as a bus-boy starting out there before he gained waiter status).