Compromise Exempts Waiters From Wage Hike

The first attempt to find a compromise on increasing Idaho’s minimum wage has been introduced in the state Senate.

State Affairs Chairman John Hansen, R-Idaho Falls, submitted the bill on Friday with a tip credit provision he said could generate the support needed for approval.

But Senate President Pro Tem Jerry Twiggs said he knows of as many as a half dozen other approaches to the minimum wage issue circulating through the Capitol.

“I would tender this a compromise between several positions,” Hansen said.

Like the other two bills already introduced, Hansen’s proposal raises the current minimum wage of $4.25 an hour to $4.75 on April 1 and $5.15 on Sept. 1. It also includes a training wage of $4.25 an hour for workers under 20 years old for their first 90 days on the job.

But unlike those other two bills that raise the minimum wage for tipped employees from $3.19 currently to $4.25, Hansen’s bill sets the so-called tip credit - the amount the wage can be discounted in consideration of additional income from tips - at 33 percent. That would keep the minimum wage for tipped employees like waiters and waitresses at $3.19 initially and raise to $3.45 on Sept. 1.

Idaho’s tipped employee minimum has been over a dollar higher than the federal minimum for six years.

The new federal minimum wage, which took effect last October, leaves the minimum for tipped employees at $2.13 an hour unless workers do not collect enough tips to raise their hourly rate to $4.75. In that case, the minimum must be raised until it totals $4.75 when combined with tips.