Service Industry Salaries within the Minimum verses Living Wage Controversy

I, Alexandria Viszolay, affirm the following: Service industry jobs, concerning waiters and waitresses in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are closer to living wage careers than minimum wage professions due to their average, hourly salary determined by The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Although closer to the living wage, the overall average must be raised to avoided complications of living, according to MIT’s wage calculations.)  
         The controversy on the living wage verses minimum wage has stirred many questions and offered extensive debates from world leaders for decades – a difficult area to the American government since the beginning of established wages. In 2012, The Albuquerque Minimum Wage Ordinance raised the minimum wage from $7.50 to $8.50 per hour – after tax, this new number decreases to about $5.00 per hour and is well below the living wage, estimated at $16.00 dollars an hour (after tax). Although the average $9.01 estimated for servers is above minimum wage, after tax, this number is one-half the recommended living wage. *The $9.01 per hour salary can change based on location of workplace, restaurant rating, cost of food, overall attitude towards patrons, and even gender. For the purpose of this debate, the definition of serve industry salaries will remain $9.01 per hour of work.

I would say if your going by sheer percentages that unfortunately being a waitress does not meet living or standard wage. As per the Us Government, "The American federal government requires a wage of at least $2.13 per hour be paid to employees that receive at least $30 per month in tips. If wages and tips do not equal the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour during any pay period, the employer is required to increase cash wages to compensate." Unfortunately, this leaves alot of room for companies to effectively destroy a waiter/waitress' ability to live.
After carefully looking into it, there are also no unions currently in place (officially) for the server position. This field of work is unfortunately not well regulated and not many people are capable of making a true living in this position. I looked into why there are no unions for this type of work, and unfortunately it cannot be regulated. The only way to fix this industry with a union is to eliminate tips. The complication this poses makes it so your work ethic and quality of service can go down, but also evens out the wage issue.

I think that if the wages they earned were raised they would make significantly more than most minimum wage jobs with their tips for the same amount of work therefore the minimum wage overall would have to be raised which wouldn't be a good idea because people would become comfortable with these jobs and decrease the graduation rate.

Keyshawn Tindal wrote:I think that if the wages they earned were raised they would make significantly more than most minimum wage jobs with their tips for the same amount of work therefore the minimum wage overall would have to be raised which wouldn't be a good idea because people would become comfortable with these jobs and decrease the graduation rate.

I feel your looking to nearsighted in regards to this issue. As I stated in another post earlier, the objective of a minimum wage is to provide an actual liveable salary, tis being only a partial factor instead of a reliance. Previously in the early/middle 20th century, businesses actually paid enough for a person to work at a mom and pop store and still live comfortably. Unfortunately in today's world, politics and wage garnishing has become the norm and prevented healthy wage growth.

A major factor to consider it you cant separate one job from another if you raise the federal minimum wage. All jobs must be equally considered into this position or you will face a level of favoritism or bias thoughts.