Not news to anyone who lives in a place where this is common, but not every state in the USA allows for a tiny minimum wage + tips, and it’s definitely not a standard around the world.

There’s a lot of information in the article, and it’s less meant as news and more as research.

The original tip credit was no more than 50 percent of the minimum wage, and at times it was less. But the 50-50 split was severed in 1996 when President Clinton sought to increase the minimum wage, which required Congress to amend the FLSA. That year, a deal was brokered with influence from Herman Cain, who headed up the National Restaurant Association. All agreed to an increase in the regular minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.25 in two annual steps. However, included in the text of the amendment was a provision that froze the subminimum wage, in perpetuity, at $2.13 per hour — effectively decoupling the tip credit from the minimum wage. At the time, $2.13 had already been in place since 1991 — this is how we got to 33 years and counting of a $2.13 subminimum wage.

Freezing the $2.13 subminimum wage in place meant that the tip credit allowance would increase in lockstep whenever there was an increase in the regular minimum wage — not actual cash wages paid to tipped workers. This is exactly what happened. Federally, customer tips now account for 71 percent of a tipped worker’s minimum wage, while the direct cash subminimum wage represents just 29 percent.

We are long overdue for a change in the federal wage floors. The subminimum wage (adjusted for inflation) has been on a downward trend for decades; its buying power today eroded to an all-time low. And, the minimum wage has declined by 30 percent since it was last increased in 2009; it will reach a 68-year low this year