Santorum's Sweatshop Expansion Bill

From Labor Blog courtesy of the Daily Kos:

But here's a kicker from a GOP supposedly dedicated to states rights. Santorum's bill would ban states from requiring employers to pay tipped workers with a guaranteed wage. Employers could pay tipped workers nothing and force them to live off tips, while states would be preempted from creating a higher wage standard for tipped workers.

The federal Fair Labor Standards Act specifically guarantees states the right to impose higher wage standards than the federal law. One area where many states have a higher standard than federal law is for tipped workers, who are guaranteed only $2.13 per hour in wages under federal law and can be forced to credit their tips against the required federal wage level. Many states have a higher minimum wage for tipped workers or have abolished the so-called "tip credit" altogether and let workers keep their tips, without allowing employers to reduce their salary below the regular minimum wage level.

With Santorum's bill as law, you would end up with a situation where small and even medium size restaurants and other businesses with tipped employees would be exempt from the federal minimum wage, and state governments would be barred from requiring employers to pay actual wages to tipped workers. Essentially, those workers could be hired for zero dollars and told they had to live only off tips, however little those were.

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Even though the $2.13 minimum wage for tipped employes currently required by the federal government is nearly a joke now, getting rid of it entirely is no laughing matter. There's a lot of work that waiters, for instance, are required to do that has nothing to do with tipping, like rolling silverware, prepping wait stations, or even mopping and sweeping. What will happen under Senator Santorum's bill if it becomes law is that all these additional tasks would be done simply for the "privilege" of working for tips. I can already feel myself bending over. Furthermore, unpaid employees would have to comply with numerous bullshit corporate rules and regulations, such as draconian uniform standards and whatnot. $2.13 an hour sucks, but it makes all the crap involved with service work a bit less oppressive.

Really, this is coming close to legalizing slavery, and I don't think I'm overstating. When you get right down to it, the wealthy elites who run this country, and heavily fund Santorum's campaign coffers, strongly resent having to pay wages at all. Senator Santorum is trying get his masters as close to their goal as possible. And this bill isn't just about the minimum wage for tipped employees, either. Santorum is also attacking both the minimum wage overall, and the concept of overtime.

God, these people make me sick.

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