Service workers depend on tips to make their wages
Kristina Haney
In Arizona, the minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. According to the tip credit policies, as explained on the Arizona Restaurant Association website, the restaurant can only take a maximum $3 tip credit.
A tip credit is an amount that an employer is allowed to subtract from minimum wage, assuming the server can make it up in tips. For instance, at California Pizza Kitchen in Chandler, the wage for the servers is $4.85. This makes the tip credit $2.40. If the total of the tips plus wages do not equal minimum wage at the end of the pay period the restaurant has to make up the difference.
“The hourly wage we make is basically what pays the taxes on our tips,” said Mike McGee, a server at CPK, “A two week pay check can only be $75-$100, depending on the amount of tips and hours.”
McGee works at the CPK located in Chandler Mall.
Restaurants may add an 18 percent gratuity onto tickets of parties of six or more. Starting in January 2014, automatic tips in large parties will be considered a service charge as opposed to a tip and are subject to payroll tax withholding.
“CPK experimented with not adding the 18 percent because the law was supposed to go into effect this year. I didn’t really affect me, I still got about 18 percent from large parties. It’s kind of a common practice, so most large parties know to add a certain amount of tip,” McGee said.
