Restaurant workers are getting stiffed. It’s time for employers to pay up

The tipped wage scale allows restaurants to pay workers less than the legal minimum wage. Some unscrupulous owners nevertheless try to get away with paying even less

This may come as a shock to some but there's a different minimum wage for restaurant employees than for workers in most other industries. In Pennsylvania, for example, that minimum wage is just $2.83 per hour.

Every statein the US has these tipped wages". According to minimumwage.org, the tipped wage is as little as $2.13 per hour in 19 states and as high as $10 in New York.