Restaurants: Consider Tips in Setting Minimum Wage

ST. PAUL (AP) - A group of Minnesota restaurants is pushing the Legislature to factor tips into their proposal to boost the state's minimum wage.

The Minnesota Restaurant Association says most employees who collect tips make much more than the state's current minimum wage of $6.15 an hour.  State lawmakers are considering a bill that would hike the state's minimum wage to $9.95 an hour by 2015, after which it would increase annually based on inflation.

The restaurant group wants to keep servers' and waiters' base wages at $7.25 an hour if they make $12 per hour after tips are factored in.

J.J. Haywood, CEO of Pizza Luce and the group's president, says many restaurants would raise menu prices and cut staffing if they were to pay all tipped employees the higher minimum wage.