That's a few dimes an hour more than a garment worker in the Dominican Republic earns. Typically, opponents of minimum wage increases decry their supposed effects on small businesses. But Domino's Pizza, Denny's, and Bob's Big Boy can pay the same cut-rate wage to their waiters and waitresses as our New Jersey diner. If he succeeds, a decade will have passed without waiters and waitresses getting a raise in the federal minimum. During the past 20 years, this subminimum wage has risen a measly 12 cents.
Labor markets are tight, and wages have risen.
The restaurant lobby could probably cite some places where waiters and waitresses get paid much more than the federal minimum. This subsidy program seems to be quite popular. Yet more subsidies could flow to the restaurant industry. The Republican leadership freely acknowledges that this and other special-interest tax breaks are the pound of flesh they will demand in return for a minimum wage increase. Waiters and waitresses would get a larger share of our tips and, perhaps, a firmer hold on the American dream.