Yesterday, Bluestem took a look at the May 2, 2005 debate in the Minnesota House on raising the minimum wage. Here's Randy Demmer's floor statement:
Meanwhile, some fun reporting is coming out because of the Emmer proposal. First, Emmer is "explaining, not gaining, as they say. I like comment #4 the best, which begins:
Love all the liberal righteous indignation. These same people are willing to:
1) Take away customers from these same servers by imposing property rights violations in the form of smoking bans. Servers lost their jobs when the smokers stopped coming in thanks to these same busy-bodies.
I'd like to hear "Average Joe's" opinion of endorsed Republican Secretary of State candidate Dan Severson.
Second, Star Tribune column Jon Tevlin did a bit a of fact-checking in Myth list: Unicorns, Big Foot, rich waiters. He talked to the owner of the restaurant where Emmer made his statement about the tip credit and claimed that some waiters made over $100,000. The response:
"I don't want people thinking we have people making $100,000 a year here, because we don't," said Kasel, who had to call his 29 employees that morning to prevent a mutiny. "No way, shape or form did I [tell Emmer] anyone made $100,000."
Kasel said rather he told Emmer that a couple of his employees do well, and that "If all the pieces fell in the right place" they could make $100,000. But not a server, he said.
Finally, MinnPost's David Brauer looked at the endorsed MNGOP gubernatorial candidate's claims that Minnesota's restaurant prices were as high as those in California in Emmer and Olive Garden:
The media has noted the candidate's assertion of $100,000 tipped employees, median server income that is less than a third or a fifth of that, but no one has checked this Emmer claim:
"Minnesota's menu prices are comparable to California and New York. We have some of the highest prices in the country. It just gets passed on to consumers."
Of course, there are so many variables in menu pricing (restaurant fanciness, cost of ingredients, etc.) that making an apples-to-apples judgment is tough. But there is at least one place we can turn to for a pasta-to-pasta comparison: Olive Garden.
. . .At least when it comes to this corporate Italiano eatery, Emmer appears to be wrong: Minnesota prices are clearly and consistently lower than California's. (Just to be sure, I checked the OG in Clovis, near Fresno, in case Burbank seemed too glam. The California prices were identical.)
Go read both the Tevlin and Brauer pieces.
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