Tips spark disagreement over Mpls. minimum wage proposal

Dozens of people debated the details of a proposed $15 minimum wage in Minneapolis at a marathon City Council public hearing Thursday.

The council is weighing an ordinance that would set the $15 hourly minimum by July 2022, starting with a hike to $10 and over starting next year. That's above the state's current $7.75 minimum wage.

The debate centered on whether tips should count in workers' overall wage. If not, employers would have to pay the $15-an-hour minimum, no matter what their staff was actually taking home, which could be twice the minimum wage in some cases.

Dozens of restaurant owners and their tipped staff told the council that not counting tips toward wages threatened the city's hospitality industry and would backfire.

"I will be damned if I let this black-and-white, one-size-fits-all approach slaughter this business that I love," server Sarah Webster Norton told the council. "We fully support a minimum wage increase. For everyone else. Why is that so difficult to understand? Who does a tip credit hurt?"

Other supporters of including tips in wage calculations said the proposed ordinance as written would put Minneapolis restaurants at a disadvantage to those in other parts of the metro. They predicted employers would cut staff or save money other ways, such as asking customers to use electronic tablets to order their food.

Those who liked the ordinance currently before the council said some tip earners get very little, and that relying on the goodwill of diners and customers wasn't a sustainable way to fight poverty or racial disparities.

"I could work at one of these larger, white-male-owned businesses, but it's not a safe space for me as a woman in that situation," said Erica Sherwood. She likes the cafe where she works, but wants to earn a higher wage.

Mary Swartz, with Ebenezer Senior Living, said nursing homes depended on government reimbursement, and couldn't pass along higher wages to their clients. Swartz asked for a longer phase-in for employers that provided health benefits.

University of St. Thomas vice president Doug Hennes asked the council for an exemption for student workers, arguing that the wage increases might only be passed along in higher tuition to the students themselves.

Others took the city council to task for including a youth training wage in the ordinance, at 85 percent of the standard for workers under 20 for their first 90 days of employment.

"This is a loophole intended to benefit big business and no one else," said Bridget Peterson, a University of Minnesota Morris student from Minneapolis. She said it would let employers cycle through summer workers and displaced older workers. "The young people of Minneapolis deserve more than that."

The hearing was the last opportunity for the public to weigh in on the matter. The council is expected to take a vote on the measure this month.