Originally Posted by Ron Bennett

Your comment reaffirms what doesn't get much press - small businesses tend to be the lowest paying with often no benefits whatsoever, even worse than big name companies. I understand small businesses are at an economic disadvantage, but still that doesn't give them any more right to exploit workers.

As for the argument that tips can cover the difference, that's malarkey - it takes a lot of tips these days to go from sub-minimum wage to full-minimum. Sure, food prices at restaurants have gone up, but nowhere near as fast as the cost of living has. For example $2.13 per hour requires earning an extra $5-$6 per hour in tips on average (sure it's easy to do for an hour or two if one gets a couple of 4-tops, but keeping that up across an entire shift, not so easy) just to get to full-minimum.

In my view, restaurants should pay full-minimum wage (~$8 hour) with any tips on top of that. Some states already require this, so it can work just fine.