this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2025
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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Just an fyi, $2.13 isn't all people get paid in food service industries. It's part of something called "tip credit." The national or state minimum wage remains the absolute minimum. What this means is that your tips supplement the restaurant's duties to pay you minimum wage.
If you make at least minimum wage at the end of your pay period, factoring in tips, then the restaurant doesn't have to pay you more. If you make less with your tips, the restaurant is financially responsible to make you whole.
This is one of the reasons that tip-pooling should be illegal as well.
If you make less with your tips, the restaurant ~~is financially responsible to make you whole.~~ fires you the next week, in practice.
It also needs to be pointed out this is a legal requirement, but it doesn't always happen. If they don't make up this difference it's one form of wage theft, the most common form of theft in the US.
Of course, but we all know that tipping is used pretty much everywhere to make up for poor wages. The vast majority of the industry does this, and it should be dismantled and rebuilt, so people are treated (and paid) as people!
As an ex service employee who had tips split and didn't know about tip credit yet, I know that the options are to either get paid as a person, or treated as a person. The number of people who told me that they didn't "do tips" but were willing to give me a high five as a substitute was as understandable as it was upsetting.
I'm sorry you went through that. The entire pay model is crap. The industry needs to scrap it and start over. It's unbelievable, actually.
The good thing is, there are plenty of examples around the world (outside of North America) where service workers are treated and paid like people!