Call it the luck of location. If you happen to live in Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon or Washington State, and work in an occupation that relies on tips from customers, you must be paid your state’s full minimum wage for every hour you work. But if you’re a tipped worker in one of 15 (mostly Southern) states, you earn just $2.13 an hour — a subminimum rate that has been in place since 1991. The remaining states — 28 and Washington, D.C. — pay workers more than $2.13 but less than the federal $7.25 hourly minimum.
And the variations don’t end here. For example, New York State ended the subminimum wage for aestheticians, car wash workers, dog groomers, door persons, hairdressers, manicurists, tour guides, tow truck drivers and valet parking attendants in 2020, but left the subminimum in place for wait staff and bartenders.
What’s more, it’s not just tipped workers who are paid lawful, but outrageously low, subminimum wages. Disabled workers employed in a “sheltered workshop,” vocational education pupils, agricultural workers, prisoners, and full-time students employed in retail or service businesses can be paid less than minimum wage, thanks to a provision in 1938’s Fair Labor Standards Act.
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But here, too, there are some inconsistencies: To wit, employers can pay workers under age 20 a subminimum wage of $4.25 an hour for no more than 90 calendar days after they begin the job.
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